Influence of Selected Secondary Catalysts on the Thermo-catalytic Reforming (TCR®) of Woody Biomass

The central aim of this work is to investigate the influence of secondary catalysts on the thermocatalytic reforming (TCR^®) of woody biomass. In a normal TCR^® process, the char from the feedstock sits in the post-reformer to catalyse the reforming of the vapours from the reactor. In this work, each secondary catalyst supports the char from the feedstock to catalyse the post-reforming reactions. Four secondary catalysts are studied, namely, activated carbon, aluminium oxide, a blended hydrogenation catalyst, and red mud. Each catalyst is mixed with the feedstock in a ratio of 1:3. The results show that the introduction of each secondary catalyst leads to a reduction in the gas yield, except in the case of red mud, in which it increases. The char yield also decreases while the process water yield increases. The change in the oil yield depends on the secondary catalyst: a slight decrease in the cases of activated carbon and blended catalyst, a slight increase in the case of aluminium oxide, and no significant change in the case of red mud. More still, there is a general increase in the hydrogen fraction of the gas with the introduction of each secondary catalyst. Therefore, targeted objectives in the TCR^® of wood waste can be achieved by adding the right secondary catalysts.