New tar reforming catalyst for use in hot gas cleaning of biomass gasification plants
The production of biogenic hydrogen from locally available biomass in biomass gasification plants is of great interest with regard to the European Green Deal’s goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 and to net zero by 2050.
To enable complete tar removal from the biosynthesis gas (solving the tar problem), the new nickel-based vapor reforming catalyst C&CS #1050, developed and patented under the EU project MEMBER (No. 760944), was further developed into a fixed-bed tar reforming catalyst in tablet form (C&CS #1250 type) (see photo).
Following successful activity studies at the ICB-CSIC institute (https://www.icb.csic.es) on a laboratory scale (see link below to the publication by M. Nacken, I. Martinez, G. Grasa in gwf Gas + Energie 10-11 2024), the catalyst was tested under tar reforming conditions in a TRL-5 pilot gasification plant for agricultural waste at the CSIC (Spanish National Research Council) in Spain. The catalyst demonstrated excellent catalytic performance under demanding conditions with respect to temperature and gaseous volume velocity (GHSV) of 500°C and 60,000 h⁻¹, respectively, achieving almost complete conversion of the light tar compounds.
Additionally, within the framework of the EU project RISEnergy (No. APP142), a variant of the new tar reforming catalyst – C&CS #1250 A – was tested in the slipstream of the updraft biomass gasification plant at the ENEA research center in Trisaia, Italy, and complete tar conversions were achieved even at relatively low operating temperatures with relatively high tar input concentrations (see presentation at EUBCE 2025 by: N. Cerone, M. Nacken, F. Zimbardi et al. “Efficient Hydrogen-Rich Syngas Production from Biomass Gasification Using a Novel High-Performance Catalyst for Double-Step Steam Catalytic Tar Reforming”).
Contact for inquiries:
Dr. Manfred Nacken
Expert for Reforming, Filtration & Separation
C&CS catalysts and chemical specialties GmbH
Phone: +49 8106 23598 93
manfred.nacken@candcs.de
https://www.candcs.de
