Process for producing hydrogen gas from sustainable biofuels or from other carbon based fuels
A process for producing hydrogen gas is disclosed. In one embodiment, the process for produces hydrogen gas from biofuel reformation. The process includes the step of reacting a biofuel with a naturally occurring base.
1 . A process for producing hydrogen gas from biofuel reformation including the step of:
reacting a fuel comprising carbon with a naturally occurring base.
2 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the naturally occurring base is Ca(OH) 2 , CaO, Mg(OH) 2 , or MgO
3 . The process of claim 2 , wherein the naturally occurring base comprises Ca(OH) 2 particles having a particle size of less than 20 microns.
4 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the fuel comprising carbon is a renewable biofuel.
5 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the fuel comprising carbon is an alcohol.
6 . A process for producing hydrogen gas from biofuel reformation including the steps of:
reacting a fuel comprising carbon with a naturally occurring base and
recycling a byproduct of the step of reacting the fuel comprising carbon with the naturally occurring base in a single step.
7 . The process of claim 6 , wherein the recycling process only utilizes a single cation.
8 . The process of claim 6 , wherein the naturally occurring base is calcium hydroxide.
9 . The process of claim 6 , wherein the recycling process does not include a metathesis reaction step.
10 . The process of claim 6 , wherein the recycling step is a thermal decomposition step.
11 . A process for producing hydrogen gas including the step of:
reacting a fuel component with a reaction mixture in the presence of a dissolution control agent to produce hydrogen gas,
said fuel component comprising carbon,
said reaction mixture comprising a solvent and a reaction component, the reaction component having a non solvated component and a solvated component, the non solvated component being in equilibrium with the solvated component.
12 . The process of claim 11 , wherein the dissolution control agent comprises at least one agent selected from the group consisting of a dissolution rate control agent and a solubility level control agent.
13 . The process of claim 11 , wherein the dissolution control agent comprises a non solvated component having a controlled surface area.
14 . The process of claim 13 , wherein the non solvated component has an average particle size of less than 20 microns.
15 . The process of claim 13 , wherein in the non solvated component comprises Ca(OH) 2 .
16 . The process of claim 11 , wherein the non solvated component has an average particle size of about 0.5 microns to about 10 microns.
17 . The process of claim 11 , wherein the non solvated component has an average particle size of less than about 300 nanometers.
18 . The process of claim 11 , wherein the non solvated component has an average particle size of about 50 nanometers to about 260 nanometers.
19 . The process of claim 11 , wherein the non solvated component has a surface area greater than 0.1 m 2 /g.
20 . The process of claim 11 , wherein the non solvated component has a surface area between about 50 m 2 /g to about 300 m 2 /g.
21 . The process of claim 11 , wherein the dissolution control agent comprises an agent that chemically reacts to form the reaction component of the reaction mixture.
22 . The process of claim 21 , wherein the dissolution control agent comprises an alkali metal salt or an alkaline earth metal salt.
23 . The process of claim 21 , wherein the dissolution control agent comprises CaF 2 or CaCl 2 .
24 . The process of claim 11 , wherein the dissolution control agent comprises an agitation process.
25 . The process of claim 24 , wherein the agitation process is a stirring process, a vibrating process, a vortexing process, or a milling process.
26 . The process of claim 24 , wherein the agitation agent is an ultrasonic agitation process.
27 . The process of claim 24 , wherein the agitation processes increases the dissolution rate of the nonsolvated component by a factor of greater than 100.
28 . The process of claim 11 , wherein the dissolution control agent is electromagnetic radiation.
29 . The process of claim 11 , wherein the electromagnetic radiation is microwave radiation.
30 . The process of claim 11 , wherein the dissolution control agent is thermal energy.
31 . The process of claim 30 , wherein the reaction mixture is heated to a temperature of above 100 Celsius.
32 . The process of claim 30 , wherein the thermal energy increases the solubility level of the reaction component by a factor of greater than 10 over the solubility level of the reaction component at 25 degrees Celsius.
33 . The process of claim 11 , wherein the dissolution control agent is a non aqueous solvent.
34 . The process of claim 33 , wherein the reaction mixture solvent comprises the non aqueous solvent and a second solvent.
35 . The process of claim 33 , wherein the reaction mixture solvent comprises a third solvent, said third solvent having a polarity level between the non aqueous solvent and the second solvent.
36 . The process of claim 33 , wherein the non aqueous solvent comprises an alcohol.
37 . The process of claim 33 , wherein the dissolution control agent is a surfactant.
38 . The process of claim 11 , wherein the dissolution control agent is a thickener.
39 . The process of claim 38 , wherein the viscosity of the reaction control mixture is between 5×10 −3 Pa·s and 50×10 −3 Pa·s.
40 . The process of claim 38 , wherein the surfactant thickener is a cellulose based thickener.
41 . The process of claim 11 , further including the step of:
thermally decomposing a metal carbonate precipitate to produce a metal oxide,
wherein said metal carbonate precipitate is formed during the process for producing hydrogen gas.
42 . The process of claim 41 , wherein said metal carbonate precipitate is calcium carbonate.
43 . The process of claim 41 , further comprising reacting said metal oxide with water to produce a metal hydroxide, wherein said metal oxide forms the solvated component and the non solvated component of the reaction mixture.
44 . The process of claim 41 , wherein the process does not include a carbonate metathesis reaction step.
45 . The process of claim 11 , wherein the non solvated component comprises at least one component selected from the group consisting of CaO and Ca(OH) 2 .
46 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the wherein the non solvated component comprises at least one component selected from the group comprising Li 2 O and LiOH.
47 . The process of claim 1 , wherein the reaction component comprises at least 15 weight % of the reaction mixture.
48 . The process of claim 11 , wherein the reaction component has a Ksp in the solvent of 6.5×10 −6 or less at 25 degrees Celsius.
49 . The process of claim 11 , wherein the reaction mixture has a pH of 12.5 or less.
50 . The process of claim 11 , wherein the reaction mixture is maintained at a pH of between 10.5 and 14 during the hydrogen producing reaction.
51 . The process of claim 11 , wherein the dissolution control agent increases the dissolution rate of the non solvated component by a factor of 100 to a factor of 1,000.
52 . The process of claim 11 , wherein the dissolution control agent increases the dissolution rate of the non solvated component by a factor greater than 1,000.
53 . The process of claim 11 , wherein the dissolution control agent increases the solubility level of the non solvated component by a factor greater than 10.
54 . The process of claim 11 , wherein the dissolution control agent increases the solubility level of the non solvated component by a factor greater than 100.
55 . The process of claim 11 , wherein the dissolution control agent forms a colloidal suspension in the reaction mixture.