Construction of photocatalytic plates for hydrogen production from photoreforming of glycerol

Abstract

The photocatalytic production of hydrogen has been reported as an attractive strategy given the possibility of using renewable sources such as sunlight and biomass. The scalability of the process involves optimizing the design of the reaction system, minimizing the cost and time spent on the stages of separation, purification and reuse of the catalyst. This work demonstrates the application of photocatalytic plates impregnated with TiO2 doped with small doses of platinum (Pt) in the photoreforming of glycerol under visible radiation. The optimized amount of catalyst was 25 mg, corresponding to an average hydrogen production rate in 3 h of reaction of 316 mmol H2.h−1.m−2, this value being independent of the platinum concentration range tested (0.1%–1.0%, w/w). The kinetic behavior of the photocatalytic plates was similar to the application of the catalyst in powder form. The presence of 0.3% platinum in the catalyst composition led to the maintenance of photocatalytic stability for 7 consecutive application cycles, indicating operational viability without appreciable loss of performance, brings good prospects for expanding the scale of the process and allowing the development of continuous flow operations.