Dehydrogenation of perhydro-dibenzyltoluene for hydrogen production in a microchannel reactor

A preliminary study regarding the dehydrogenation of perhydro-dibenzyltoluene as a liquid organic hydrogen carrier with switching from a stirred tank reactor to a continuous flow microchannel reactor is presented. The hydrogen production percentage in the case of a continuous flow microchannel reactor was found greater when compared to that of a stirred tank reactor. The hydrogen production was increased from 64.1% to 82.2% with the increase in bottom plate temperature from 260 to 320 °C for 0.01 mL/min flow rate. A maximum of 88% of hydrogen was generated for a 40 hours of operation, at a bottom wall temperature of 290 °C. The kinetic model for the microchannel reactor dehydrogenation was presented with a pre-exponential factor of 3.272 s⁻¹ and activation energy of 13.79 kJ/mol. The results revealed that a continuous microchannel reactor can be an appropriate technology for the dehydrogenation of perhydro-dibenzyltoluene.