Catalytic pyrolysis of corncob with Ni/CaO dual functional catalysts for hydrogen-rich gas

Abstract

BackgroundAs "carbon neutrality" has become an important topic in the world, biomass has become one of the important clean energy sources. Ni/CaO dual functional catalysts (DFCs) are promising for catalytic utilization of biomass. MethodsIn this paper, we optimized the reaction conditions and secondary metals (Cu (ⅠB), Ce (ⅢB), Mo (ⅥB)) based on Ni/CaO DFCs to improve the performance of catalytic H2 production from corncob. Significant findingsThe addition of Ce and Mo improved the H2 production of Ni/CaO DFCs, while Cu played an inhibitory role. Compared with Ce and Mo, Cu inhibited the strong adsorption of CO2 and H2O, leading to a decrease in H2 production. Under pyrolysis conditions, Mo had a stronger cracking ability towards oxygenated tars, achieving the highest total gas yield. Under steam gasification conditions, Ce produced oxygen vacancies and reactive oxygen species through redox reactions (Ce4+↔Ce3+), which promoted H2O dissociation adsorption and water-gas shift reaction (WGS). Therefore, under steam gasification conditions, Ce-Ni/CaO DFCs achieved the optimal H2 production (33.72 mmol/gbiomass, 81.25%) with good cycling performance. The work provided a new idea for the development of Ni/CaO DFCs and H2 production from biomass.