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Reaction performance of the sorption enhanced reforming (SER) process for the production of hydrogen was studied using commercial dolomite as inexpensive solid CO2 absorbent. The combined reforming, shift, and CO2 separation reactions were studied using a laboratory-scale fixed-bed reactor as a function of temperature, feed gas composition, dolomite type, and dolomite and catalyst particle sizes. Reactor was loaded with a mixture of calcined dolomite (≈ 23g) and a commercial reforming catalyst (NiO/Al2O3, ≈ 10g). Temperature was varied from 550 to 650°C at 15 atm. Feed gas composition was varied from 6 to 20% CH4/balance N2 and steam, with a feed H2O/CH4 ratio = 4. Two sources of dolomite were used; Rockwell and Stonelite. Particle sizes of dolomite and catalyst were 75>dp>150 μm and 300>dp>425 μm, respectively and were inversely varied. Results show that at 550°C Ca(OH)2 formation is possible, thus reducing the available CaO for carbonation, negatively affecting the performance of the SER system, while 650°C reached the SER thermodynamic equilibrium (TE). The use of dolomite approached the TE of the feed gas compositions studied, disregarding of its source. Kinetic effects observed in the tests suggest that small dolomite and large catalyst particles favor the decrease of CO2 diffusion effects.
Sorption Enhanced Reforming, Hydrogen Production, Calcined Dolomite
The authors are grateful to the US Department of Energy for financial support under Grant DE-FG02-97ER12208 and Doctoral Research Grant from Fulbright-Garcia Robles CONACYT.
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