Hydrogen produced at low temperatures by electrochemically assisted pyrolysis of cellulose in molten carbonate

Cellulose was used as feedstock to investigate the effect of electrolysis on the molten salt pyrolysis process . The mechanism of cellulose transformation in the electrochemically assisted molten carbonate pyrolysis (EMCP) system was evaluated by comparison with the molten carbonate pyrolysis (MCP) system. The gas product yield from the EMCP system reached 70.5 wt%, at the expense of the liquid product and tar. The maximum H 2 yields up to 8.31 mol/kg of cellulose at low temperatures without the catalyst in the EMCP system. Cellulose decomposition was catalyzed by the molten salt to produce a large number of volatiles, where the aldehyde groups in the volatiles were electrochemically oxidized to carboxyl groups. Subsequently, the carboxyl compounds combined with alkali metal cations to release hydrogen radicals and then underwent secondary cracking, along with the volatiles having low chemical bond energies. The EMCP system follows the Shrink Cylinder model, which is dominated by the two-dimensional reaction on the surface of the graphite electrode , where the electrolysis process is the determining step.