Conference Dates

June 19-24, 2016

Abstract

Introduction

Biomass is an attractive renewable source of fuel and energy. Thermochemical processes can convert biomass to a liquid bio-oil or to a syngas. The advantage of using bio-oil as an intermediate is that, in contrast with both raw biomass and gas, it can easily be produced in small distributed units, stored and transported. Not only can platform chemicals and clean fuels be produced from syngas, but hydrogen is itself an alternative fuel. A high hydrogen production is usually desired: for example, methanol production requires a syngas with a molar H2/CO ratio of 2. Therefore, maximum hydrogen production has been a major objective in steam reforming/gasification of bio-oil.

An appropriate catalyst is one of the most important operating factors in syngas production. Olivine (with general formula of (Mg,Fe)2SiO4) is a mineral material that has been investigated in biomass gasification to crack tars in the product gases; it is attrition resistant in fluidized bed reactors and has catalytic activities in gasification processes because of its iron content. However, pre-treatment of olivine, particularly, calcination temperature is crucial to make it catalytically active. It has been claimed that iron content of olivine must be in the form of iron oxide when it is introduced in the gasification reactor; gases such as hydrogen and carbon monoxide, which are produced in gasification reactors, reduce the iron oxide to metal iron (Fe0) that is an active catalyst of gasification reactions.

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