Steam reforming of biomass tar for hydrogen production over NiO/ceramic foam catalyst

Abstract In this study, the catalytic steam reforming of biomass tar for hydrogen production was carried out in a fixed-bed reactor with NiO/ceramic foam catalyst. The ceramic foam used as catalyst carrier was a three-dimensional porous material with high porosity and high specific heat capacity. The effects of reaction temperature, steam to carbon ratio (S/C) and equivalence ratio (ER) on gas quality parameters were investigated. And the fresh, coked and regenerated NiO/ceramic foam catalysts were characterized by SEM and XRD analyses. It was found that, when the temperatures varied from 500 to 900 °C and S/C ratio from 0 to 4, H₂ yields were in the range of 28.29-105.28 g H₂/kg tar. With increasing ERs, the concentrations of H₂ decreased from 63.13 to 18.96%. SEM and XRD analyses showed that the catalyst was in situ activated by reducing nickel oxide to the active nickel metal during a reducing atmosphere in steam reforming process.