Abstract:
The aim of this research was to study the hydrogen production by co-pyrolysis/steam reforming of plastics and glycerol using Ni/Al2O3 catalyst. Experiments were carried out using a two-stage fixed-bed reactor. In the first part, the effect of Ni/Al2O3 catalyst was examined. The results indicated that addition of Ni/Al2O3 catalyst significantly increased the composition and yield of hydrogen but the composition and yield of methane and carbon monoxide were decreased. This was attributable to the promotion of water-gas shift reaction. In the second part, the effect of reforming temperatures at 700, 750 and 800 °C was studied. For all cases of single feedstock, the results indicated that yield of all gas products trend to increase with higher reforming temperature and the maximum hydrogen yield was attained at reforming temperature of 750 °C. Additionally, the effects of using different types of plastics including polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS) was investigated at reforming temperature of 750 °C, with Ni/Al2O3 catalyst. It was found that the hydrogen production of glycerol with PE and PS were quite similar. The addition of glycerol with each plastic was found to significantly result in the high evolution rate of hydrogen compared to the single feeds.