PRODUÇÃO DE GÁS HIDROGÊNIO COM AÇO INOXIDÁVEL 254 EM ÁCIDO FÓRMICO, GLICERINA E ÍONS OH-

Abstract

Energy generation from fossil fuels is always accompanied by environmental impact; this fact motivates the search for renewable sources to support the energy demand. A renewable and clean alternative is the use of hydrogen gas, wherein the only byproduct is water. The hydrogen obtaining from electrolysis is a process of great interest because it does not use fossil fuel as a raw material, however it is a process that requires high energy consumption. An alternative to the water electrolysis is formic acid electrolysis, which is a phase of bio-oil production, derived from the biomass pyrolysis, and also the use of glycerin, which is a byproduct of biodiesel production, both from renewable sources. This work aims to evaluate the use of formic acid, glycerin and sodium hydroxide at different concentrations, and the use of a stainless steel type ABNT 254 electrode to obtain hydrogen gas from electrolysis, minimizing energy consumption and therefore the cost of production. A 2 3 factorial design was developed to optimize the best concentration of the species in relation to the number of moles of hydrogen produced. Cathodic potentiodynamic polarization, open circuit potential, cronoamperometrical curves and scanning electron microscopy techniques were employed. The research demonstrated that it is possible to produce hydrogen by using formic acid, sodium hydroxide and glycerin combined solutions, and the main result of formic acid was 3.0 mol.L-1, NaOH = 1.5 mol.L-1 and glycerin 0.1% v/v.