Assessing a commercial steam methane reforming catalyst for tar removal in biomass gasification

Abstract

This study assessed performance of a steam methane reforming (SMR) catalyst for reforming tar produced during biomass gasification. Bench–scale reforming tests are presented using methanol/water mixtures with guaiacol or toluene in the range of 0–4 wt%. Long-duration tests indicate that the SMR catalyst could operate for thousands of hours at 0.5 wt% tar loading. Tests at tar loadings up to 4 wt% showed deactivation rate was directly proportional to tar loading and, at 4 wt% loading, resulted in reduced performance during 24 h on stream. Overall, the SMR catalyst exhibited excellent characteristics for application in a step–wise catalytic tar reforming process. The SMR catalyst had higher activity for methanation than a commercial automotive catalyst previously assessed for tar reforming, which could be advantageous for commercial RNG production. The COCO process simulator was used to model and compare the experimental results of bench-scale tests.