Catalytic conditioning of organic volatile products produced by peat pyrolysis

David Sutton, Brian Kelleher, Julian R.H. Ross

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

A series of metal oxides were investigated for up-grading the quality of the product gas from peat pyrolysis. The designed test rig pyrolysed brown peat in a nitrogen atmosphere at 550°C. This resulted in 35.5 wt% of the carbon present in the peat being converted to a volatile fraction. The volatile fraction was transferred to a secondary catalytic reforming reactor, at 800°C, which was located downstream from the gasifier. The thermal effect alone of the second reactor resulted in an increase in the CO, CO2 and CH4 content of the volatile fraction, a synthesis gas ratio of 0.75 and a HHV of 26.5 MJ kg-1. A selection of metal oxides (Al2O3, SiO2, ZrO2, TiO2) and MOR1 investigated in the secondary reactor at 800°C showed an increase in the quality of the product gas. Notably TiO2 increased the conversion of the hydrocarbons present in the gas stream to 79.5%, resulting in a synthesis gas ratio of 2.22 and increased the HHV by 71.5 MJ kg-1.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)209-216
Number of pages8
JournalBiomass and Bioenergy
Volume23
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2002

Keywords

  • Biomass
  • Catalyst
  • Hot gas
  • Synthesis gas
  • Tar

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