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Oxidation of AISI 304L and 348 stainless steels was investigated in water at 1000-1350 °C by TGA, SEM, EDS, and Raman spectroscopy. Linear-Parabolic kinetics and multilayer oxide scales with voids were found for both alloys. Based on the experimental results, AISI 304L presented higher oxidation resistance and higher activation energy. Zircaloy-4 kinetic results were used for validation and performance comparison. In severe accidents conditions, stainless steel might lead to a faster hydrogen production comparing to Zircaloy.

The use of hydrogen in fuel cells is considered by many researchers one of the most convenientmethods for electric energy production, under environmentally. Hydrogen can be obtained from water ororganic sources, among which are natural gas, petroleum naphtha and methanol. However, ethanol presentsa great number of advantages over fossil fuels, because it is produced from renewable biomass, thereforealmost neutral in terms of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Furthermore, it provides ease handling andstorage, and less toxicity when compared to other organic sources. In this project, the process developmentwas conducted through the following steps: modeling and simulation of reactive systems, with kineticsobtained from technical papers, adjustment of operational variables and analysis of the process efficiency.