New nickel-based material (Sr12Al14O33) for biomass tar steam reforming for syngas production

A new "free oxygen" material, Sr12Al14O33 (Sr(12)A(7)), was developed as a Ni support for biomass tar steam reforming. Toluene was chosen as the model compound for biomass gasification tar. The steam reforming process was investigated in a fixed-bed reactor. The influence of the operating parameters (i.e., reaction temperature, steam-to-carbon ratio, and space time) on catalyst activity and product selectivity were studied. Ni/Sr(12)A(7) (5 wt %) showed a higher activity compared with a similar commercial catalyst, Ni/Dolomite. The influence of the steam/carbon (S/C) molar ratio on gas yields at values ranging from 1.5 to 4.0 was investigated. The results show that the H-2 and CO2 yields increased, whereas the CO yield decreased, when the S/C ratio was increased. The influence of space-time (w(cat)/F-toluene) was also determined. The H-2, CO2, and total gas yields increased when the ratio was increased. Catalyst ageing experiments were characterized by Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDX). Based on the results, the kinetic model is proposed as a first-order reaction for toluene with an activation energy of 131.2 kJ.mol(-1), as generally accepted in the literature. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.