A systematic experimental and analytical research on hydrogen production from biomass gasification in supercritical water

Hydrogen production by biomass gasification in supercritical water (SCW) is a promising technology for biomass utilization in the future. Some progresses of supercritical water gasification for hydrogen production were presented. A miniature apparatus with continuous operational tubing flow reactor was designed and developed to operate under the conditions of the reactor wall temperature ≤ 700°C and working medium pressure ≤ 35 MPa. A series of experimental studies on gasification of model compounds and real biomass in SCW were carried out in the three apparatuses and some mechanisms of biomass gasification in SCW were also preformed. The rules of the main parametric effects on supercritical water gasification for hydrogen production were obtained. Some theoretical analyses, including thermodynamics and kinetics, gave useful information for the gasification system design in the direction of system improvement. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 231st ACS National Meeting (Atlanta, GA 3/26-30/2006).