Influence of salts on the subcritical water-gas shift reaction

The water-gas shift reaction is the key reaction to produce hydrogen by hydrothermal biomass gasification. Salts are ingredients of biomass and accelerate the water-gas shift reaction. In this work, the influences of the NaHCO3 and the KHCO3 on water-gas shift reaction (WGSR) were investigated at 10 and 23 MPa and 230–300 °C. The presence of NaHCO3 and KHCO3 promotes the WGSR significantly and to the same extend. Additionally, sodium and potassium formate salts are formed from the carbonates. The water-gas shift reaction rate in the presence of salts is found to be: 1.16 × 10 4     ( l mol − 1 ) 0.5  s − 1  e ( − 9155   K / T )     [ CO ] [ NaHCO 3 ] 0.5 .