A sequential process for hydrogen production based on continuous HDPE fast pyrolysis and in-line steam reforming

By Itsaso Barbarias, G. Lopez, J. Alvarez, M. Artetxe, Aitor Arregi, J. Bilbao, M. Olazar. 2016

147 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract A continuous process has been developed consisting in the flash pyrolysis (500 °C) of high density polyethylene (HDPE) in a conical spouted bed reactor (CSBR) followed by steam reforming in a fluidized bed reactor (Ni commercial catalyst). The effect reforming temperature in the 600–700 °C range, space time from 2.1 to 20.8 g cat  min g HDPE −1 and steam/plastic ratio between 3 and 5 have on product yields and gas composition has been studied. The continuous pyrolysis-reforming process performs well, with no operational problems and attaining complete HDPE conversion. Under the optimum conditions, i.e., 700 °C, space time 16.7 g cat  min g HDPE −1 and steam/plastic of ratio 5, the H 2 yield was 92.5% of that corresponding to stoichometry, which accounts for a H 2 production of 38.1 g per 100 g of HDPE in the feed.

Subfields: Biomedical Engineering, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Polymers and Plastics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6d054ef9a0f538f8333e4ef01de36d4325899529