Evaluation of the Process Parameters on Subcritical Water Gasification of Sorghum by Response Surface Methodology

Abstract

In this study response surface methodology (RSM) with Box-Behnken design (BBD) was used to evaluate the effects of process parameters of reaction time, initial water volume, amount of feedstock and amount of catalyst on total gasification and hydrogen production yield by low temperature hydrothermal gasification of Sorghum biomass at 250°C. Ruthenium (III) chloride was used as a catalyst in catalytic runs. Significances of the main and interacting effects of independent parameters were determined by ANOVA. Numerical optimization was used to optimize the process parameters for maximum yield hydrogen production. The optimum conditions for maximum hydrogen production were determined as a residence time of 58.6 min, water volume of 24.5 mL and catalyst amount of 0.02g.