Hydrogen Generation from Biomass-Derived Surgar Alcohols via the Aqueous-Phase Carbohydrate Reforming (ACR) Process

This project involved the investigation and development of catalysts and reactor systems that will be cost-effective to generate hydrogen from potential sorbitol streams. The intention was to identify the required catalysts and reactors systems as well as the design, construction, and operation of a 300 grams per hour hydrogen system. Virent was able to accomplish this objective with a system that generates 2.2 kgs an hour of gas containing both hydrogen and alkanes that relied directly on the work performed under this grant. This system, funded in part by the local Madison utility, Madison, Gas & Electric (MGE), is described further in the report. The design and development of this system should provide the necessary scale-up information for the generation of hydrogen from corn-derived sorbitol