Catalytic cracking of biomass tar using Ni nanoparticles embedded carbon nanofiber/porous carbon catalysts

The major obstacles for catalytic cracking of biomass tar have been known as the low tar removal efficiency and catalyst deactivation. In view of this, the novel Ni nanoparticles embedded carbon nanofiber/porous carbon catalysts were synthesized by the method of hydrothermal treatment combined with carbothermal reduction. The properties of catalysts were evaluated by characterization of N-2 adsorption-desorption, SEM, XRD, TEM, H-2-TPRand Raman, meanwhile the evolutionary mechanism of catalysts was also proposed. The tar catalytic cracking tests indicated that the Ni-0.30@CF/PCs exhibited the favorable catalytic activity with the high tar conversion efficiency (94.78%) as well as the better catalytic stability at the catalytic cracking temperature of 700 degrees C compared to other catalysts. In the case of Ni-0.30@CF/PCs, the carbon nanofiber/porous carbon composites with hierarchical micro-mesoporous structure and high graphitization degree as well as the Ni nanoparticles embedded in catalyst support with the strong metal-support interaction exhibited the favorable activity-structure relationship. In addition, the Ni-0.30@CF/PCs catalyst also presented the high tar conversion efficiency of 93.31% after 10 cycles, which was due to the high resistance towards coke deposition and sintering of metallic Ni covered by graphite layer from the carbothermal reduction process. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The study synthesized novel Ni nanoparticles embedded carbon nanofiber/porous carbon catalysts for catalytic cracking of biomass tar, which exhibited favorable catalytic activity and stability. The catalyst showed a good activity-structure relationship, effectively inhibiting coke deposition and sintering of metallic Ni.