Supercritical water gasification of petrochemical wastewater for hydrogen production

Abstract

Supercritical water gasification of petrochemical wastewater is a promising technology for clean petrochemical wastewater utilization. In this paper, hydrogen production by noncatalytic partial oxidation of petrochemical wastewater was systematically investigated in supercritical water with a continuous reactor for the first time. The influences of the main operating parameters including residence time, temperature, and oxidant equivalent ratio (ER) on the gasification characteristics of petrochemical wastewater were investigated. The experimental results showed that H 2 yield and carbon gasification efficiency (CE) increased with increasing temperature. CE increased with increasing ER, and H 2 yield peaked when ER equaled 0.2. CE increased quickly within 180 s and then tended to be stable between 240 and 300 s.