Chinese Chemists report a new catalyst for cracking biomass gassification

[NNadir]

tars. It's cheap iron oxide on dolomite.

From this month's Energy and Fuels.

"Cracking of biomass tar was investigated over Ni/dolomite catalyst prepared by the incipient wetness method using modified dolomite as precursor. Modified dolomite was prepared by mixing Fe2O3 powders with natural dolomite powders to increase Fe2O3 content for higher activity of tar cracking. Four other catalysts (natural dolomite, modified dolomite, ICI-46-1, and Z409) were tested and compared with Ni/dolomite catalyst. The effects of temperature, steam-to-carbon, and space velocity on tar conversion were explored. Ni/dolomite is shown to be very active and useful for tar removal. A 97% tar removal is easily obtained at catalyst temperature of 750 °C and
space velocities of 12 000 h-1. The minimum S/C ratio for Ni/dolomite was 2.5 at a catalyst temperature of 750 °C to prevent the formation of the coke on the catalyst. No obvious deactivation
of catalyst was observed in 60 h on-stream tests. Compared with the Ni-based catalysts (ICI-46-1, Z409), Ni/dolomite catalyst is cheap and has also excellent activity and anticoke ability."