Biomass can provide renewable energy sources and has the potential to replace fossil fuels. A major stumbling block in the utilization of biomass as a chemical feedstock lies in the collection of the biomass itself and transportation to a central processing facility. Liquefaction of biomass at the production site can potentially solve the transportation problem by pumping the liquid product through pipelines. In this work, cellulose is first liquefied in supercritical water, and the resulting liquid product is then reformed in a high-temperature catalytic bed for the direct production of hydrogen at high pressure.

Liquefaction of cellulose was achieved in sub- and supercritical water in the temperature range of 335°C to 405°C with a short residence time on the order of seconds. Resulting aqueous product contained mainly monomers, degradation products of glucose and organic acids. This product was then reformed over Ru/Al2O3 catalyst at elevated temperature for production of hydrogen. The gaseous products contained mainly hydrogen, carbon dioxide, methane and a small amount of carbon monoxide. Experimental parameters such as temperature, reaction time and concentration of the feed on formation of hydrogen product were investigated.