Download Demand for hydrogen (H2) will grow up in the next decades due to

Demand for hydrogen (H2) will grow up in the next decades due to the technological
advancements in fuel cell industry which permit its transformation in electricity and heat without
generating polluting gases. At present, almost 95% of the world’s hydrogen is being produced from
fossil fuel based feedstock. A more environmental friendly alternative is to replace fossil fuels by
biofuels as raw materials for hydrogen production. Biomass is renewable and, although carbon
dioxide is still produced, it may be recycled to new biomolecules by photosynthesis, resulting a
carbon neutral cycle. The main objective of this project proposal is to develop a laboratory scale
technology and experimental set-up to produce hydrogen by steam reforming of hydroxylic
compounds (monohydroxylic alcohols and glycerol) resulted as wastes in biomass processing or
prepared from wastes of biomass. The main problem in the hydrogen production from glycerol
wastes resulted in biodiesel fabrication process is the presence of impurities in crude glycerol which
(i) impeded the performance of the catalyst and (ii) cause a severe catalyst deactivation. Our project
proposes two approaches to overcome these problems: (1) to establish an economically viable
method to partially purify the crude glycerol and (2) to test and find new catalysts based on Ni with
better activity and resistance to deactivation. A catalytic technology for hydrogen production from
glycerol and an experimental set-up at laboratory scale will be provided at the end of the project.
The proposed project has strong interdisciplinary character which: (i) combines in a coherent
manner knowledge from various fields: chemistry, heterogeneous catalysis, chemical reaction
engineering, (ii) connects the fundamental and applicative research from National Institutes (CO
and P2) and Universities (P1) with research developed by economical entities (P3) and by end-users
of developed technology (P4).