Study of structured catalysts for post-treatment of syngas produced by dried-wood gasification

Overview & Synopsis

Biomass gasification seems to be a promising biomass conversion technology due to the valuable product gas obtained, well-known as syngas. Nevertheless, a mixture of high hydrocarbons, defined as tars, are produced as by-products. This mixture can cause several operational problems due to its condensation in different parts of the industrial process (turbines, tubes…) and, moreover, it can limit the downstream use of the final product gas. Thereby, the integration of a cleaning gas step in the gasification process to remove these tars are aimed. In the present work, the development of catalytic systems to reform tars and generate a high-quality syngas has been carried out. Thus, the synthesis and characterization of six nickel-based catalysts supported over mixed oxides with high oxygen conductivity, based on doped-ceria fluorites and La-based perovskite, were performed. Afterwards, the catalytic activity in tar reforming was evaluated at laboratory scale using phenol and toluene as tar model molecules. The catalytic structuration over SiC based extrudates was optimized and subsequently, its structuration at large scale (batch extrudates of 1L) was conducted. Eventually, the structured catalysts prepared at large scale were tested under real conditions at biomass gasification pilot plant scale.