H2 enriched fuels from co-pyrolysis of crude glycerol with biomass

Abstract

Pyrolysis of glycerol has been identified as a possible route for producing high added value fuels like renewable hydrogen (H2). Crude glycerol (CG) is the main byproduct of biodiesel industry and without purification it is a low added value material due to the presence of impurities. Co-pyrolysis of CG with biomass may improve the efficiency of the process and as a primary step of gasification give important information concerning the maximization of H2 concentration in the produced gas. Moreover, the thermochemical treatment of crude glycerol–biomass mixtures may offer several economic and environmental advantages in biodiesel industry and reduce the cost of biodiesel production. A mixture of CG with olive kernel (OK) was used as pyrolysis feed material. Pyrolysis of a 25wt% mixture of CG with OK at high temperature (T=720°C) seemed to promote steam reforming reactions leading to an increase of H2 concentration of 11.6 vv% in the pyrolysis gas in comparison to H2 in gas obtained by low temperature pyrolysis (T=520°C).