%0 Journal Article %T Steam Reforming of Glycerol for Hydrogen Production over Catalyst %A G. Sadanandam %A N. Sreelatha %A M. V. Phanikrishna Sharma %A S. Kishta Reddy %A B. Srinivas %A K. Venkateswarlu %A T. Krishnudu %A M. Subrahmanyam %A V. Durga Kumari %J ISRN Chemical Engineering %D 2012 %R 10.5402/2012/591587 %X The performance of catalyst for glycerol reforming has been investigated in fixed-bed reactor using careful tailoring of the operational conditions. In this paper, a commercial Engelhard catalyst has been sized and compared to gas product distribution versus catalyst size, water-to-carbon ratio, and stability of the catalyst system. catalysts of three sizes ( , , and £¿mm) are evaluated using glycerol: water mixture at to produce 2£¿L£¿H2£¿g£¿1£¿cat£¿h£¿1. The results indicate that £¿mm size pellet is showing minimum coking and maintaining same level of conversion even after several hours of reforming activity. Whereas studies on and £¿mm pellets indicate that carbon formation is affecting the reforming activity. Under accelerated aging studies, with 1£¿:£¿9 molar ratio of glycerol to water, 3£¿mg£¿carbon£¿g£¿1£¿cat£¿h£¿1 was generated in 20 cycles, whereas 1£¿:£¿18 feed produced only 1.5£¿mg£¿carbon£¿g£¿1£¿cat£¿h£¿1 during the same cycles of operation. The catalysts were characterized before and after evaluation by X-ray diffraction (XRD), BET surface area, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDAX), CHNS analysis, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray photo electron spectroscopy (XPS). 1. Introduction The search for alternative energy sources is becoming an important aspect in the present scenario due to diminishing petroleum reserves and increased environmental pollution. Hydrogen production from biomass has great interest because of the potential application in fuel cells. Significant amount of glycerol is produced as a by-product in biodiesel production by transesterification of vegetable oils, which are available at low cost in large quantity from renewable raw materials. With increased production of biodiesel, an excess amount of glycerol (C3H8O3) is expected in the world market [1]. At present, glycerol is used in many applications including personal care, food, oral care, tobacco, polymer, and pharmaceutical applications. Besides converting glycerol into value-added chemicals [2¨C4], hydrogen production through reforming is alternative route [5¨C12]. Aqueous phase reforming of oxygenated hydrocarbons is extensively studied by the Luo et al. and Shabaker et al. [9, 13], and glycerol steam reforming is studied by Czenik et al. [14], Pompeo et al. [10], and Adhikari et al. [6, 15] over nickel-based catalysts and noble metal catalysts on different supports [16¨C19]. Chiodo et al. reported carbon formation of 2¨C6£¿mg£¿carbon£¿g£¿1£¿cat£¿h£¿1 by steam reforming of glycerol by Ni over MgO, CeO2, Al2O3, and Ru/Al2O3 catalysts for 20£¿h %U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/isrn.chemical.engineering/2012/591587/