Resistance of Ni/perovskite catalysts to H2S in toluene steam reforming for H2 production

Abstract

H2S is a kind of common impurity produced during the gasification of biomass, and it will poison the catalysts used in biomass tar steam reforming, leading to a rapid degradation on the catalytic performance. The purpose of this work is to investigate the characteristics of biomass tar steam reforming using Ni/perovskite catalysts with the presence of H2S. Results show that H2S could significantly reduce catalytic activity due to the adsorption of sulfur on Ni surface, and Ni/perovskite catalysts are less susceptible to this poisoning in comparison to the Ni-catalyst loaded on γ-Al2O3. To understand the mechanism, fresh and spent catalysts were characterized using various techniques of XRD, SEM-EDS, XPS and TPO. It is proved that the lattice oxygen in perovskite could transform into surface species, inhibit the adsorption of sulfur and thus benefit to the reactivity of catalysts during biomass tar steam reforming.