Enhancing syngas production and hydrogen content in syngas from catalytic slow pyrolysis of biomass in a pilot scale fixed bed reactor

Hydrogen inevitably proves to be a promising alternative fuel source. In this era of climatic crisis, hydrogen extraction in the purest form of energy is crucial from natural sources such as biomass. Thermo-chemical conversion of biomass is a potential route of hydrogen production from biomass. Gasification is mostly studied by the researchers for hydrogen-rich syngas production from biomass, but it suffers from the problem of producing a significant amount of impurities along with syngas. To overcome this, two-stage pyrolysis reforming is gaining interest since the last decade. Although the two-stage pyrolysis reforming process gives a better yield of hydrogen, it is costlier as reforming is done at higher temperature, and steam is added to the process. Therefore, the present investigation is focused on enhancing the production of syngas and elevating the hydrogen concentration in syngas from single-stage pyrolysis of rice husk by altering the pyrolysis condition and using suitable catalyst without addition of steam. The results obtained from the experiments reveal that slow pyrolysis in isothermal conditions is suitable for higher syngas yield. The presence of catalyst increases the overall production of pyrolysis vapor and hydrogen percentage in syngas. The pyrolysis vapor production increases from 57.20 to 71.04%, and hydrogen production increases from 15.31 to 40.24% while Ni-zeolite catalyst is used. Thus, single-stage catalytic slow pyrolysis of biomass could be a promising cost-effective alternative for cleaner hydrogen production from biomass.