Boreskov Institute of Catalysis of the Siberian Branch of Russian ...

OP-V-7CATALYTIC BIOMASS GASIFICATION: CO 2 CAPTURE ANDHYDROCARBONS STEAM REFORMING IN FLUIDISED BED ANDMICROREACTOR USING M/DOLOMITE CATALYSTSLuca Di Felice* , **, Claire Courson**, Nader Jand*, Katia Gallucci*, Pier Ugo Foscolo*and Alain Kiennemann***Chemical Engineering Department, University of L’Aquila, 67040 Monteluco di Roio,L’Aquila, Italy, E-Mail: foscolo@ing.univaq.it**Laboratoire des Matériaux, Surfaces et Procédés pour la Catalyse - ECPM, UMR 7515 25,rue Becquerel, 67087 Strasbourg Cedex 2, France. E-mail : kiennemann@chimie.u-strasbg.frIt is well known that biomass is one of the important primary and renewable energysources, with neutral balance in carbon dioxide cycle. Gasification produces a syngascontaining tar, from 5 to 75 gr/Nm 3 of product gas in fluidised bed gasifiers. This is acomplex mixture of cyclic and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons 1 very harmful for toxicityand cancerous properties; moreover, corrosive and pollutant characteristics of tar compoundsprohibit direct utilization of gas product stream. Catalytic steam reforming seems to be thebest way to eliminate tar compounds, converting it in a syngas; however, steam reforming ofmodel tarry compounds other than toluene 2 and naphthalene 3 has not been yet studied to agreat extent. In this work, toluene and 1-methylnaphthalene has been used like tar modelcompounds in fixed bed microreactor and in fluidised bed. Two M/dolomite supportedcatalysts (M=Ni,Fe) has been developed. Dolomite is known to have a catalytic activity in tarreforming 4 , and is a very attracting material to adsorb CO 2 from syngas. Nickel almostcompletely remove tar, but it is toxic so the disposal is a potential environmental problem.Iron, on the other hand, has been less studied because of the high efficiency of nickel catalyst,but it has several advantages: lower cost which can imply a higher metal concentration in thecatalyst (20-40% weight), and harmless behaviour for the environment. In this work, weevaluate catalytic activity related to these materials, making possible tar steam reforming andcyclic CO 2 capture process.Catalysts was prepared by means of impregnation method, using different preparationsconditions (temperature, calcination atmosphere, solvent). The aim of catalyst synthesis is theformation of a solid solution M/dolomite, to form strong interactions that should limit carbondeposition 2 in the catalyst surface. These interactions, highlighted by Mossbauer spectrometry(for iron), temperature-programmed reduction (TPR) and by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD),will be discussed in details. In brief, the most important crystalline phases detected were1 Z. Abu El-Rub, E. A. Bramer, and G. Brem, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2004, 43, 6911-69192 D. Swierczynski, C. Courson, L. Bedel, A. Kiennemann, , and J. Guille, Chem. Mater. 2006, 18, 4025-40323 J. Delgado, M.P. Aznar, J. Corella, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 1996, 35, 3637-3643.4 R. Coll, J. Salvado´, X. Farriol, D. Montane, Fuel Processing Technology, 2001, 74,.19–31179