Steam reforming of bio-oil from coconut shell pyrolysis over Fe/olivine catalyst

Catalytic steam reforming of coconut shell pyrolysis bio-oil over Fe/olivine catalyst was conducted in a fixed-bed quartz reactor. The effects of calcination temperature, iron loading, reaction temperature, steam to carbon ratio (S/C), bio-oil weight hourly space velocity (W_bHSV) on gas composition and carbon conversion were investigated. The results indicate that Fe/olivine has good activity for steam reforming of bio-oil, the couple Fe^2+/3+/Fe²⁺ may be sufficiently efficient for C–C, C–O and C–H breaking. After steam reforming, most of the phenolics in pyrolysis oil are converted into light molecular compounds such as H₂, CO, CO₂, and CH₄. The H₂ concentration and carbon conversion were enhanced by increasing reaction temperature from 750 to 800 °C and the S/C from 1.5 to 2, but decreased with increasing calcination temperature. In the W_bHSV range of 0.5–0.6, the hydrogen concentration decreased obviously, whereas it decreased slightly by further increasing W_bHSV. The highest hydrogen concentration of 47.6 vol% was obtained among the catalysts tested, and the best carbon conversion was 97.2% over 10% Fe/olivine catalyst under the reforming conditions of temperature = 800 °C, W_bHSV = 0.5, S/C = 2.