Progress on Catalyst Development for the Steam Reforming of Biomass and Waste Plastics Pyrolysis Volatiles: A Review

Abstract

In recent decades, the production of H 2 from biomass, waste plastics, and their mixtures has attracted increasing attention in the literature in order to overcome the environmental problems associated with global warming and CO 2 emissions caused by conventional H 2 production processes. In this regard, the strategy based on pyrolysis and in-line catalytic reforming allows for obtaining high H 2 production from a wide variety of feedstocks. In addition, it provides several advantages compared to other thermochemical routes such as steam gasification, making it suitable for its further industrial implementation. This review analyzes the fundamental aspects involving the process of pyrolysis-reforming of biomass and waste plastics. However, the optimum design of transition metal based reforming catalysts is the bottleneck in the development of the process and final H 2 production. Accordingly, this review focuses especially on the influence the catalytic materials (support, promoters, and active phase), synthesis methods, and pyrolysis-reforming conditions have on the process performance. The results reported in the literature for the steam reforming of the volatiles derived from biomass, plastic wastes, and biomass/plastics mixtures on different metal based catalysts have been compared and analyzed in terms of H 2 production.

Thermochemical Conversion of Plastic Waste into Fuels, Chemicals, and Value‐Added Materials: A Critical Review and Outlooks

“…More details about the recent development of catalysts for hydrogen gas production from biomass and plastics had been reviewed. [259] ii. Coke formation on the active sites would lead to severe deactivation of the catalysts.…”

2021 Pioneers in Energy Research: Javier Bilbao

“…The attrition rate of the two ores, their hydrodynamic behavior in the fluidized bed, and their evolution of composition are discussed in depth after a gasification test of 40+ h time on stream. Santamaria et al have summarized recent advances in the production of hydrogen by the steam reforming of biomass and waste pyrolysis volatiles. The effect of the catalytic materials (support, promoters, and active phase), synthesis methods, and pyrolysis-reforming conditions on hydrogen yields have been compared.…”

“…Professor Bilbao has made pioneering contributions to the development of new thermal and catalytic processes within the platforms of biorefinery and waste refinery, particularly thermocatalytic processes (pyrolysis and gasification) for the direct production of H 2 and raw materials from biomass and residues. These original and pioneering contributions include (1) the development of technologies based on the conical spouted bed and spouted bed–fluidized bed tandem reactors, − (2) catalytic reforming for the production of H 2 from biomass-derived oxygenates (bio-oil, ethanol, and dimethyl ether), with highly relevant results being obtained in the valorization of raw bio-oil, − (3) synthesis of dimethyl ether, fuels, and raw materials from syngas and CO 2 , with original core–shell catalysts and hydrophilic membranes, (4) cracking and hydrocracking of bio-oil and side streams in refineries and those from consumer society wastes (plastics and tires), − with the original aspect being the use of refinery conditions, − (5) methodologies for the study and control of the deactivation and regeneration of new sustainable catalysts, which have being approached in all of the processes studied, (6) new sustainable catalytic processes for the production of olefins and aromatics from paraffins, biomass-derived oxygenates, and methane (via chloromethane), with the proposal of dimethyl ether to olefins (DTO), and (7) hydrodynamic modeling and pilot plant implementation of reactors and equipment for physical operations (separation, drying, and granulation) and chemical processing involving biomass and other solids, with the use of spouted beds and micro- and nanocyclones being specifically remarkable.…”

Optimal Fe/Ni/ Ca‐Al catalyst for tar model steam reforming by using the Taguchi method

“…Unfortunately, aluminum oxide support facilitates carbon deposition, leading to the deactivation of catalysts due to coke coverage. Therefore, some alkali metal oxides and a part of transition metal oxides were introduced to be promoters to improve catalyst properties 16 . These heterogeneous catalysts are layered double hydroxides (LDHs) that have various advantageous characteristics for catalytic reactions, such as large surface area, high metal dispersion, and synergy effects between metals and metal oxide supports.…”

“…Therefore, some alkali metal oxides and a part of transition metal oxides were introduced to be promoters to improve catalyst properties. 16 These heterogeneous catalysts are layered double hydroxides (LDHs) that have various advantageous characteristics for catalytic reactions, such as large surface area, high metal dispersion, and synergy effects between metals and metal oxide supports. Moreover, LDHs are composed of stacked oxides, whose structure is suitable for the exchange of lattice oxygen and electrons between metals.…”