Catalytic hydrogen combustion as heat source for the dehydrogenation of liquid organic hydrogen carriers using a novel compact autothermal reactor

Gescher C, Hahn S, Hornung C, Weiss M, Rüde T, Geißelbrecht M, Wasserscheid P (2025)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2025

Journal

Book Volume: 180

Article Number: 151694

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2025.151694

Abstract

The experimental performance of an autothermal hydrogen release unit comprising a perhydro benzyltoluene (H12-BT) dehydrogenation chamber and a catalytic hydrogen combustion (CHC) chamber in thermal contact is discussed. In detail, the applied set-up comprised a multi-tubular CHC heating based on seven parallel tubes with the reactor shell containing a commercial dehydrogenation catalyst. In this way, the CHC heated the endothermal LOHC dehydrogenation using a part of the hydrogen generated in the dehydrogenation. The proposed heating concept for autothermal LOHC dehydrogenation offers several advantages over state-of-the-art heating concepts, including minimized space consumption, high efficiency, and zero NOx emissions. During performance tests the process reached a minimum hydrogen combustion fraction of 37 %, while the minimum heat requirement for the dehydrogenation reaction for industrial scale plants is 33 %. The reactor orientation (vertical vs horizontal) and the flow configuration (counter-current vs. co-current) showed very little influence on the performance demonstrating the robustness of the proposed reactor design.

Authors with CRIS profile

Involved external institutions

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Australia (AU) Helmholtz-Institut Erlangen-Nürnberg für Erneuerbare Energien (HI-ERN) Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Gescher, C., Hahn, S., Hornung, C., Weiss, M., Rüde, T., Geißelbrecht, M., & Wasserscheid, P. (2025). Catalytic hydrogen combustion as heat source for the dehydrogenation of liquid organic hydrogen carriers using a novel compact autothermal reactor. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2025.151694

MLA:

Gescher, Christoph, et al. "Catalytic hydrogen combustion as heat source for the dehydrogenation of liquid organic hydrogen carriers using a novel compact autothermal reactor." International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 180 (2025).

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