Effect of Preparation Method on the Activity of Red Mud Based Catalysts in Hydrogen Production From Biomass

Abstract

Biomass gasification is a promising technology for hydrogen production. This study presents H2 production from olive tree pruning (OTP), employing a fixed dual-bed reactor that combines OPT gasification and volatile reforming. The thermal steam gasification of OTP was performed at 850 degrees C, followed by the catalytic gasification of volatiles at different temperatures. Red mud (RM) and nickel loaded red mud (Ni-RM) catalysts were used as catalytic bed material. The effects of different operating parameters, i.e. catalytic bed temperature, catalyst preparation method (thermal reduction & plasma reduction), and nickel ratios in catalyst on the yield and composition of produced gases were investigated. The catalyst prepared by reduction under non-thermal plasma showed no effect on the gasification due to the insufficient temperature for the reduction of Fe2O3 and NiO. The results indicated that the bottom bed temperature had a significant effect on the H2 yield, especially in the catalytic experiments. The RM alone shows almost the same activity with Ni-RM on the H2 yield; 1076 mL gas/g OTP and 1128 mL gas/g OTP, respectively. The results of present study showed that reduced RM had as much catalytic activity as Ni loaded reduced RM in hydrogen production.