Hydrogen production by supercritical water gasification of methylhydrazine in continuous system

Supercritical water gasification technology has ability to process unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) wastewater derived from launching spacecraft, missile or satellite realizing both harmless treatment and resource utilization due to its unique property. Owning advantages such as compact structure, highly reduced reactor volume, improved heat transfer efficiency and fully mixed reactants, a spiral continuous reactor was proposed based on the characteristics of UDMH wastewater. Methylhydrazine (MMH) was used as model compound on account of UDMH's commercial unavailability. The degradation of MMH in supercritical water is determined as an apparent first-order reaction using initial rate method. The effect of different parameters including temperature (450-550 degrees C), feeding flow rate (10-75 g/min), feeding concentration (5-30 %), and catalyst type on gasification were systematically investigated and subsequently the migration of carbon and nitrogen was also concerned. Results showed that addition of KOH could make the carbon gasification efficiency approach 100 % with the maximum hydrogen yield up to 21.6 mol/kg under the condition of 500 degrees C, 23 MPa, feeding flow rate of 30 g/min, feedstock concentration of 10 %. The proportion of organic carbon in total carbon tended to decrease with the increase of temperature. Most of nitrogen (up to 99.7 % at most) was gasified within our experimental range.

Automated summary

The study utilized supercritical water gasification technology to treat UDMH wastewater, with a spiral continuous reactor showing promising results. The addition of KOH could achieve a carbon gasification efficiency close to 100%, with a maximum hydrogen yield of 21.6 mol/kg under specific conditions.