Interaction of Ce-char catalyst and partial oxidation on changes in biomass syngas composition

Tars produced with syngas greatly restricted the industrial application of biomass gasification technology. In this study, various char-supported catalysts including Ce-char, Ni-char, Fe-char, K-char, and Ca-char were prepared by the wetness impregnation method. Catalytic activity of char-supported catalysts was investigated for syngas reforming during the partial oxidation process in a lab-scale gasifier. The char-supported catalysts were also characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, XRD, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller theory, and scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive spectroscopy. The novel catalyst, Ce-char, exhibited the best catalytic activity in tar removal among all the tested catalysts. At an optimum set of reaction parameters (a reaction temperature of 800 degrees C and 13% of air addition), the interaction of the Ce-char catalyst and partial oxidation reached a tar removal rate of 99.28% and a lower heating value of 8.55 MJ/Nm(3) for syngas. Highly dispersed CeO2 as the active component was observed from the Ce-char catalyst. The Ce-char catalyst was verified to be a promising catalyst for syngas reforming even better than Ni-char. Published under license by AIP Publishing.