Utilization of NiO/porous ceramic monolithic catalyst for upgrading biomass fuel gas

Catalytic steam reforming for producing high quality syngas from biomass fuel gas was studied over monolithic NiO/porous ceramic catalysts in a fixed-bed reactor. Effects of reaction temperature, steam to carbon (S/C) ratio, and nickel loading content on catalyst performance were investigated. Results indicated that the NiO/porous ceramic monolith catalyst had a good ability to improve bio-fuel gas quality. H₂ yield, H₂ + CO content, and H₂/CO ratio in produced gas were increased when reaction temperature was increased from 550 to 700 °C. H₂ yield was increased from 28.1% to 40.2% with S/C ratio increased from 1 to 2. And the yield of hydrogen was stabilized with the further increase of S/C ratio. Catalyst activity was not always enhanced with increased nickel content, when NiO loading content reaches 5.96%, serious aggregation and sintering of active composition on catalyst surface occur. The best performance, in terms of H₂ yield, is obtained with 2.50% NiO content at reaction temperature of 700 °C and S/C ratio of 2.