Effect of Ni Particle Location within the Mesoporous MCM-41 Support for Hydrogen Production from the Catalytic Gasification of Biomass

Abstract

Thermal processing of biomass in the presence of a catalyst is a promising technology to generate H 2 -rich gases for fuelling the future. Metal particles loaded on porous supports have been widely used for biomass gasification. However, no detailed research has been designed for describing the catalytic performance of nickel particles located inside compared to outside the pores of the supports. In this work, two groups of Ni/MCM-41 catalysts were prepared: Iseries catalysts where most of the NiO particles were located inside the mesopores of MCM-41 and O-series catalysts where most of the NiO particles were located outside the pores of MCM-41. The prepared catalysts were used in the pyrolysiscatalytic gasification of wood sawdust using a two-stage fixedbed reaction system. Gasification on the I-series catalysts generated more gas and hydrogen and lower oil, compared with the Oseries catalysts. Hydrogen production was increased from 16.46 to 21.26 (mmol H 2 g −1 wood) when the catalyst was changed from 20%Ni−O to 20%Ni−I. The better performance of the I-series catalysts in relation to hydrogen production is suggested to be due to the longer residence time of pyrolysis reactants inside the pores of the MCM-41 and thus a longer contact time between reactants and active Ni sites. In addition, the high dispersion of the fine NiO particles inside the pores of the MCM-41 support enhances the catalytic performance of the I-series catalyst during the pyrolysis/gasification of biomass.

Micro- and mesoporous supports for CO2 methanation catalysts: A comparison between SBA-15, MCM-41 and USY zeolite

“…Ni sample presents a relevant second reduction process at higher temperature that was attributed in the literature to the reduction of NiO species with relative lower size 44 . However, it has to be pointed out that ~46% of Ni species were estimated to be reduced for all samples during pretreatment at 470ºC.…”

Conventional and microwave-assisted pyrolysis of biomass under different heating rates

“…Detailed conditions for the GC-MS analysis of the oil fraction can be obtained from a previous report [17].…”

Characteristics and catalytic properties of Ni/CaAlO x catalyst for hydrogen-enriched syngas production from pyrolysis-steam reforming of biomass sawdust

“…For a better Ni dispersion, various nano-porous supports such as MCM-41 [23,24], zeolite [25], and SBA-15 [26,27] have been utilized to confine the size of Ni nano-particles inside the pores of the catalyst support. This type of confined reaction space with uniform Ni particles could enhance the production of H 2 -enriched syngas.…”