In biomass gasification to produce syngas for energy and fuel production tar removal in the raw syngas is required. Catalytic tar steam reforming in hot gas cleaning downstream of the gasifier is the most energy-efficient route, but so far the allowable tar content in the raw syngas, that can be catalytically converted, is with an inlet content of
Therefore, with respect to a broader applicabiltiy of biomass gasification to the locally available biomass, C&CS has developed a novel tar reforming catalyst in coarse grain form – C&CS #1050 B (0.25 – 0.5 mm) – based on a patented SER catalyst within the CE project MEMBER (No. 760944).
C&CS #1050 B allows even in the presence of 100 ppmv H2S complete reforming of model tar compounds at a tar inlet content of 13 g/Nm3 in the temperature range from 750°C down to 650°C.
The catalyst system was further developed to a fixed bed catalyst in tablet form – C&CS #1250 – that has also shown consistent high performance results.
In a next step, the variant C&CS #1250 A was tested under real syngas conditions in updraft gasifcation in a two step reactor approach using a dolomit guard upstream of C&CS #1250 A (RISEnergy project BIOSUNTO, contract No. 101131793).
Complete real tar conversion with a gravimetic tar inlet content of 99 g/Nm3 was achieved even at the relatively low temperature of 650°C that opened the possibility to develop an adapted catalyst to this temperature.
irst results of this fixed bed tar reforming catalyst in two tablet dimensions 4×4 mm and 5×3 mm were shown in an oral presentation on May 20, 2026 on the EUBCE 2026 with the title
„Novel optimized low temperature tar reforming catalyst in tablet form for use in hot gas filters for syngas cleaning in biomass gasification.“
