Catalytic steam reforming of complex gasified biomass tar model toward hydrogen over dolomite promoted nickel catalysts

• Main Authors: Tan, Ru Shien, Tuan Abdullah, Tuan Amran, Mahmud, Saiful Azam, Md. Zin, Rohaya, Md. Isa, Khairuddin
• Format: Article
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 2019
• Subjects: TP Chemical technology
• Online Access: http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/88606/; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2019.06.125
• Institution: Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

The complex mixture of gasified tar model (phenol, toluene, naphthalene, and pyrene) was steam reformed for hydrogen production over 10 wt% nickel based catalysts. The catalysts were prepared by co-impregnation method with dolomite promoter and various oxide supports (Al2O3, La2O3, CeO2, and ZrO2). Steam reforming was carried out at 700 °C at atmospheric pressure with steam to carbon molar ratio of 1 and gas hourly space velocity of 20 L/h·gcat. The catalysts were characterised for reducibility, basicity, crystalline, and total surface area properties. Dolomite promoter strengthened the metal-support interaction and basicity of catalyst. The Ni/dolomite/La2O3 (NiDLa) catalyst with mesoporous structure (26.42mn), high reducibility (104.42%), and strong basicity (5.56 mmol/g) showed superior catalytic performance in terms of carbon conversion to gas (77.7%), H2 yield (66.2%) and H2/CO molar ratio (1.6). In addition, the lowest amount of filamentous coke was deposited on the spent NiDLa after 5 h.