Thesis (M.S.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

A novel catalytic process for producing high-purity, elevated-pressure hydrogen from synthesis gas was proposed and investigated. The process combines the advantages of low investment and operating costs with the flexibility to adapt to a small-scale operation. The process consists of a loop containing two complementary reactions: ethanol dehydrogenation and acetaldehyde hydrogenation. In one part of the loop, hydrogen is produced by dehydrogenation of ethanol to acetaldehyde. Since acetaldehyde is a liquid under standard conditions, it can be easily separated and pure hydrogen is obtained. In the other part of the loop, hydrogen contained in synthesis gas is reacted with acetaldehyde to produce ethanol and purified carbon monoxide. Ethanol, also a liquid under standard conditions, is easily removed and purified carbon monoxide is obtained, which can be further water-gas shifted to produce more hydrogen. Various dimensionless criteria were evaluated to confirm there was no significant effect of heat and mass transfer limitations and thus the experimental results represent true kinetics. Furthermore, a thermodynamic study was conducted using a Gibbs free energy minimization model to identify the effect of reaction conditions on ethanol/acetaldehyde conversion and determine the thermodynamically favourable operating conditions. Various catalysts were synthesized, characterized and screened for each reaction in a down-flow, fixed-bed quartz reactor. A novel gas chromatography analysis method allowing for an on-line detection of all products was also developed. Unsupported copper in the form of copper foam and copper supported on three different high surface supports were evaluated in ethanol dehydrogenation. Copper foam provided the lowest activity, because of its low surface area. Cu/SiO2 was the most active catalyst for ethanol dehydrogenation. The effects of temperature, pressure, residence time, and feed composition on ethanol conversion and product composition were determined. While increasing temperature or residence time resulted in increased ethanol conversion, elevated pressure and water content in the feed had no effect on ethanol conversion. On the other hand, acetaldehyde selectivity decreased with increasing temperature, pressure and residence time, as acetaldehyde participated in undesirable transformations to secondary products, out of which the most dominant was ethyl acetate. The maximum operating temperature was limited by the stability of the copper catalyst, which deactivated by sintering at temperatures higher than 300°C. The range of temperatures investigated was from 200°C to 350°C, while pressures ranged from atmospheric to 0.5 MPa. For ethanol:water ratios <1, the addition of water to the ethanol feed improved the catalyst stability and acetaldehyde selectivity, but a detrimental effect was observed at higher ratios. The introduction of acetaldehyde into the feed always lowered the conversion, thus indicating a need for stream purification within the loop. An empirical kinetic model was used to determine the activation energy, the order of reaction and the frequency factor. Unsupported and SiO2-supported copper catalysts were compared in acetaldehyde hydrogenation. Pure copper was identified as the best catalyst. Effects of temperature, pressure, residence time, feed composition and catalyst promoter on acetaldehyde conversion and product composition were evaluated. The acetaldehyde hydrogenation was enhanced by increased temperature, pressure and residence time and suppressed in presence of Fe or Zn promoters. Once again, at elevated temperature and residence time, ethanol combined with acetaldehyde to produce undesired ethyl acetate. CO acted as an inert when testing with the pure copper catalyst, but slightly decreased conversion with the supported catalyst. A decrease in conversion was also observed with the introduction of water and ethanol in the feed, once again indicating a requirement for feed purity within the loop. A temperature range of 150-300°C was investigated with catalysts deactivating at temperatures exceeding 250°C. A pressure range identical to ethanol dehydrogenation was used: 0.1-0.5 MPa. Again, an empirical kinetic model allowed determination of the activation energy, the order of reaction and the frequency factor.

A novel catalytic process for producing high-purity, elevated-pressure hydrogen from synthesis gas was proposed and investigated. The process combines the advantages of low investment and operating costs with the flexibility to adapt to a small-scale operation. The process consists of a loop containing two complementary reactions: ethanol dehydrogenation and acetaldehyde hydrogenation. In one part of the loop, hydrogen is produced by dehydrogenation of ethanol to acetaldehyde. Since acetaldehyde is a liquid under standard conditions, it can be easily separated and pure hydrogen is obtained. In the other part of the loop, hydrogen contained in synthesis gas is reacted with acetaldehyde to produce ethanol and purified carbon monoxide. Ethanol, also a liquid under standard conditions, is easily removed and purified carbon monoxide is obtained, which can be further water-gas shifted to produce more hydrogen. Various dimensionless criteria were evaluated to confirm there was no significant effect of heat and mass transfer limitations and thus the experimental results represent true kinetics. Furthermore, a thermodynamic study was conducted using a Gibbs free energy minimization model to identify the effect of reaction conditions on ethanol/acetaldehyde conversion and determine the thermodynamically favourable operating conditions. Various catalysts were synthesized, characterized and screened for each reaction in a down-flow, fixed-bed quartz reactor. A novel gas chromatography analysis method allowing for an on-line detection of all products was also developed. Unsupported copper in the form of copper foam and copper supported on three different high surface supports were evaluated in ethanol dehydrogenation. Copper foam provided the lowest activity, because of its low surface area. Cu/SiO2 was the most active catalyst for ethanol dehydrogenation. The effects of temperature, pressure, residence time, and feed composition on ethanol conversion and product composition were determined. While increasing temperature or residence time resulted in increased ethanol conversion, elevated pressure and water content in the feed had no effect on ethanol conversion. On the other hand, acetaldehyde selectivity decreased with increasing temperature, pressure and residence time, as acetaldehyde participated in undesirable transformations to secondary products, out of which the most dominant was ethyl acetate. The maximum operating temperature was limited by the stability of the copper catalyst, which deactivated by sintering at temperatures higher than 300°C. The range of temperatures investigated was from 200°C to 350°C, while pressures ranged from atmospheric to 0.5 MPa. For ethanol:water ratios <1, the addition of water to the ethanol feed improved the catalyst stability and acetaldehyde selectivity, but a detrimental effect was observed at higher ratios. The introduction of acetaldehyde into the feed always lowered the conversion, thus indicating a need for stream purification within the loop. An empirical kinetic model was used to determine the activation energy, the order of reaction and the frequency factor. Unsupported and SiO2-supported copper catalysts were compared in acetaldehyde hydrogenation. Pure copper was identified as the best catalyst. Effects of temperature, pressure, residence time, feed composition and catalyst promoter on acetaldehyde conversion and product composition were evaluated. The acetaldehyde hydrogenation was enhanced by increased temperature, pressure and residence time and suppressed in presence of Fe or Zn promoters. Once again, at elevated temperature and residence time, ethanol combined with acetaldehyde to produce undesired ethyl acetate. CO acted as an inert when testing with the pure copper catalyst, but slightly decreased conversion with the supported catalyst. A decrease in conversion was also observed with the introduction of water and ethanol in the feed, once again indicating a requirement for feed purity within the loop. A temperature range of 150-300°C was investigated with catalysts deactivating at temperatures exceeding 250°C. A pressure range identical to ethanol dehydrogenation was used: 0.1-0.5 MPa. Again, an empirical kinetic model allowed determination of the activation energy, the order of reaction and the frequency factor.

Cette étude porte principalement sur l’influence de déformations plastiques sévères réalisées par torsion sous forte pression (ou HPT) sur différentes natures de poudres de magnésium pour la modification des propriétés d’absorption de l’hydrogène de Mg. La nature différente des poudres a été obtenue soit par un procédé d'atomisation de gaz, soit par un procédé d'évaporation/condensation par plasma d'arc. Ces poudres ont été consolidées en produits en vrac par un procédé HPT en deux étapes. Parmi les poudres composites étudiées, la poudre de magnésium contenant du graphène a montrée d’excellentes propriétés d’absorption de l’hydrogène correspondant à des cinétiques d’activation plus rapides. Un avantage significatif du procédé HPT est de briser les couches d’oxyde MgO, imperméables au passage de l’hydrogène et de venir les disperser uniformément avec les additifs dans le Mg. Par l’introduction de défauts cristallins associés à un affinement microstructural, le procédé HPT a permis d’obtenir des améliorations significatives dès le premier cycle d’hydrogénation pour les poudres consolidées de Mg par rapport aux poudre initiales, tandis que des résultats inverses ont été obtenus au sein de la poudre dopée au C et déformée par HPT. Un autre impact du procédé HPT a été de réduire l’hystérésis entre les plateaux de pression d’absorption et de résorption au cours des essais PCT (pressure-composition-temperature). De plus, il a été observé que le procédé HPT réduit de manière drastique la température de résorption pour toutes les combinaisons de poudres tandis que le taux de résorption de l’hydrogène a été légèrement diminué pour les produits consolidés. Toutefois, l’inconvénient majeur du procédé HPT, indépendamment de la nature des composés étudiés, est qu’il altère systématiquement la capacité de stockage maximum des poudres initiales. / The present work mainly focuses on the effects of severe plastic deformation through high-pressure torsion (HPT) of different nature of magnesium based powders on improving the hydrogen sorption properties of Mg. The different nature of powders was obtained by either a gas-atomization process or an arc-plasma evaporation/condensation method. These powders were consolidated into bulk products by a two-step HPT process. Among the studied powder composites, the Mg/graphene based powder demonstrated excellent hydrogen sorption properties representing faster activation kinetics. A significant advantage of the HPT processing was to break the impervious MgO oxide layers, and to disperse them uniformly along with catalytic additives within the Mg domains. Through the introduction of structural defects and microstructural refinement, the HPT processing has allowed significant improvements in the first hydrogenation kinetics for the consolidated Mg products compared to their initial powder precursors while it was reverse for the C-doped HPT products. Another significant impact of the HPT processing was to reduce the hysteresis between the absorption and desorption plateau pressures during the pressure-composition-temperature (PCT) experiments. Moreover, it was revealed that the HPT processing has drastically reduced the hydrogen desorption temperatures for all the powder combinations while the rate of dehydrogenation was slightly diminished for their consolidated products. Nevertheless, the major drawback of the HPT processing, irrespective of the nature of studied composites, was that it always impaired the maximum hydrogen storage capacity of the starting powder precursors.