Biomass catalytic gasification performance over unsupported Ni‐Ce catalyst for high‐yield hydrogen production

CORTÉS-REYES, MARINA; LARRUBIA, MARÍA Á.; POGGIO-FRACCARI, EDUARDO; ALEMANY, LUIS J.; GRANADOS-FERNÁNDEZ, RAFAEL; HERRERA, CONCEPCIÓN

BIOFUELS BIOPRODUCTS & BIOREFINING-BIOFPR

JOHN WILEY & SONS LTD

Año: 2019 vol. 14 p. 20 - 29

1932-104X

The catalytic gasification of a residual biomass, obtained from the energy crop(Xanthoceras sorbifolia Bunge) Yellow Horn (YH), is carried out to obtain a fuel gas richin hydrogen. Unsupported nickel-based catalysts modified with cerium were developed,characterized and used in the advanced catalytic gasification of this residual biomass,using H2O+CO2 as gasifying agent. Tests were performed in a thermobalance coupled toa mass spectrometer in order to identify the different steps involved in the gasificationprocess and to correlate with the estimated kinetic parameters. The sequential processidentified were: dehydration-devolatilization, pyrolysis and gasification. The mainpyrolysis step presented a value of calculated activation energy of 102 kJmol-1. A positiveeffect of the catalyst in the syn gas obtained was observed, a synergistic effect of CO2 andH2O used as gasifying agents was found in the yield to gas and specially promotinghydrogen production by several reforming and cracking reactions, aided by CeO2-NiOcatalyst able to co-activate H2O+CO2.