Electrochemical reforming of a fusel oil stream from the winery industry: New insights for a circular economy based on renewable hydrogen

Abstract

Herein, a novel study involving the electrochemical reforming in a PEM electrolyzer of an industrial by-product stream of fusel oil into hydrogen is presented using a Pt-Ni supported on graphene nanoplatelets anodic catalyst. For this purpose, pure fusel oil and various mixtures of this stream with acetic acid and water in different proportions were studied in terms of electrochemical activity and stability. The mixture with a volumetric proportion of 88 % fusel oil, 6.7 % acetic acid and 5.3 % water achieved the highest current density (210.5 mA·cm−2 at 1.4 V cell potential), which is a competitive value in comparison to other studies reporting the electrochemical reforming of synthetic aqueous ethanol solutions. Cyclic voltammetry experiments were performed at different potential ranges in order to select the optimal cell potential which minimizes the electrocatalyst deactivation. Chronoamperometry tests at this selected potential with intercalated open circuit voltage (OCV) steps demonstrated to be a suitable operation procedure, showing a reasonable stability of the system and thus, the viability in the usage of fusel oil as a liquid biofuel for pure hydrogen production. Finally, the FTIR analysis of the outlet anodic stream showed the oxidation of alcohols into carboxylic acids at a cell potential of 1.2 V.