Thesis
Dehydrogenation of ammonium formate and fuel cell utilization
Washington State University
Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
12/2020
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000004201
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/125054
Abstract
In the 19th century, the utilization of fossil fuel energy was greatly enhanced by the industrial revolution. It dominated the world energy demand market. Currently, 60% of the electricity is produced from fossil fuel-based energy globally. As a result, environmental issues are created, such as excessive CO2 emission and global climate change. Therefore, searching for renewable/clean energy to replace fossil fuel-based energy is necessary. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and a promising source of clean fuel. It can be fed to a fuel cell to produce electricity. The most common method in the industry of producing hydrogen is methane steam reforming technology. However, this process generates a net CO2 production as it releases H2 gas from non-renewable methane hydrogen carrier. This process is also endothermic and requires a tremendous amount of heat (700 °C -1000 °C). Unlike methane steam reforming, the dehydrogenation of ammonium formate produces hydrogen at 80 °C and 1 atm. Moreover, ammonium formate can be produced using CO2 as a carbon source via its reduction process with a high efficiency, which is advantageous compared to other hydrogen carriers. For my thesis study, we investigated the reaction kinetic of dehydrogenation of ammonium formate and the hydrogen production flow rate in a continuous flow system. Our kinetic data show its activation energy of 48.9 ± 0.98 kJ/mol and reaction order of 0.97. The hydrogen production rate was measured at 15 SCCM without Nafion® treated catalyst. The continuous flow system's main challenges were temperature control and losing catalyst powder during the experiment, as it could be flushed out by ammonium formate solution. Therefore, we investigated the temperature profile on the reactor and added the Nafion® solution to the catalyst to form agglomerated catalyst powder. The reformed hydrogen from dehydrogenation of ammonium formate was then fed to the proton exchange membrane fuel cell's anode side to produce electricity, and the voltage-current plot was obtained.
Metrics
6 File views/ downloads
21 Record Views
Details
- Title
- Dehydrogenation of ammonium formate and fuel cell utilization
- Creators
- Yilin Liu
- Contributors
- Su Ha (Advisor) - Washington State University, Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, School of
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, School of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Identifiers
- 99900896437901842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis