Hydrogen enrichment of biogas through reforming and its utilization in compression ignition engine under dual fuel mode

Abstract

Today s worldwide energy sectors are mainly focused on power generation by using unsustainable fossil fuels. However, from long-term perspective, power must be produced from renewable resources because of unpredictability and shortage of worldwide fossil fuel reserves. Gaseous fuel induction in compression ignition engine has picked up much attention over the most recent few years, particularly when it is produced from renewable resources. Catalytic reforming has been considered as an effective technique to produce H2-enriched biogas (HEB) from the various feedstocks. The reforming techniques which proven their potential for HEB production have been comprised of steam reforming (SR), dry reforming (DR) and partial oxidation (PO). Among these, only SR has been commercialized for the H2 production, and another (DR and PO) have their own drawbacks which limit their implementation in industries. The combined DR and PO which is so-called dry oxidative reforming (DOR), has an approach to overcome issues occurred in DR technique. In the present study, HEB production has been accomplished with commercially available Ni and synthesized catalysts under DR and DOR processes at temperature ranges from 650 to 900°C, with a CH4/CO2 ratio of 1.5:1. Moreover, attention has been focused to elucidate the influence of catalyst performance on the reactant (CH4 and CO2) conversion and product (H2 and CO) yield, as well as, on the H2/CO ratio of the DR and DOR processes. Box-Behnken design (BBD) has been used to optimize the DOR process parameters for HEB production by integrating response surface methodology (RSM) in the presence of Ni nanoparticle. The effect of the CH4/CO2 (1-2) and O2/CH4 (0.1-0.3) ratios on the catalytic performance of DOR has been assessed in the temperature range of 800 to 900°C. The empirical regression models have been developed to identify the influential and most significant parameters.