Less defective graphene aerogel and its application in microwave-assisted biomass pyrolysis to prepare H2-rich gas

Abstract

A novel, less defective graphene aerogel was prepared by microwave heating of a chemically pre-reduced graphene aerogel. The new graphene aerogel can generate a high temperature arc of above 1000 °C upon microwave irradiation, and has been used as a microwave heating material for pyrolyzing biomass into H₂-rich gas. It was surprising to find that different sources of biomass could be pyrolyzed into nearly identical H₂-rich gas consisting of H₂, CO, CH₄ and a small amount of hydrocarbons. Based on our new finding, a circular H₂ production process is proposed in this paper. If the proposed process is commercially realized, the intermittent energy can be effectively used and the inexhaustible high energy density gas from the biomass can help us get rid of our dependence on fossil energy. This work also provides a new research platform for anaerobic high temperature chemical reactions above 1000 °C, which is difficult to achieve, by using the existing experimental method.