Catalytic conditioning of organic volatile products produced by peat pyrolysis

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.