Modelado cinético y matemático de la reacción de gasificación catalítica de la glucosa en agua en condiciones supercríticas para la producción de hidrógeno

Abstract

Hydrogen produced from banana biomass waste is considered as a highly efficient biofuel. One of the cleanest methods for its obtention is the catalytic supercritical water gasification, wherein the constituent polysaccharides of biomass (cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin) convert into high value gaseous products. It is important the design of a chemical reactor for this process due to the necessity of achieving the hydrogen production in a reliable way. Among the elements that determine the reactor design, in this article were studied the intrinsic kinetic and material balance. First, a kinetic study of the reaction was performed using the glucose as model compound owing to it is the most important structural component of the cellulose. It was revealed several intermediate reactions that influenced on the yield for hydrogen. Later, it was performed a differential species balance for the glucose. It was solved in Fortran 95 applying the Thomas numerical algorithm. The results showed that at lower mass fractions of glucose, the higher levels of conversion.