抄録
Equilibrium shifting is considered to be effective for promoting H2 production by ethanol (C2H5OH) steam reforming. In this study, a packed bed reactor with a mixture of reforming catalyst and CO2 absorbent was used. Lithium silicate (Li4SiO4) was applied as the absorbent, which Toshiba has developed. In the case of Li4SiO4, CO2 emission occurs at considerably lower temperature than in the case of the well-known calcium oxide (CaO) and the reaction between Li4SiO4 and CO2 is highly reversible. This is a report of the equilibrium-shift effect on steam reforming of C2H5OH, which was obtained by using Li4SiO4 pellet (ca. 5 mm). Experiments showed obvious effect, which resulted in keeping not only the concentration of H2 at 99.3 dry vol% but also that of CO at 0.11 dry vol% for 0.5 hour. This result indicates the possibility of dispensing with a CO-shift reactor and simplifying either CO removal reactor or purification apparatus, in the case of a reformer using a packed bed of pellets. We believe that it would improve the conventional H2 production system.
