Autothermal catalytic reforming of pine-wood-derived fast pyrolysis oil in a 1.5 kg/h pilot installation: performance of monolithic catalysts

The autothermal catalytic reforming of pyrolysis oil for the production of syngas has been studied in a 1.5 kg/h pilot unit. The influence of the feed ratio's air-fuel-steam and the catalyst amount on the product gas quality were determined. While using a combination of nickel and platinum group metal (PGM) catalysts in monolithic form, a nearly tar- and methane-free product gas could be produced. The maximum syngas yield was obtained at an equivalence ratio of 0.36 and a space time of 1.3 s. These conditions resulted in the production of 47 mol syngas per kg of pyrolysis oil, which corresponds to 97% of the theoretical maximum. The total syngas production decreased at lower equivalence ratios primarily due to increased formation of carbonaceous solids. Incomplete conversion of methane at lower equivalence ratios had a smaller impact on the syngas production. Decreasing the space time to 0.7 s increased both the methane and tar concentrations in the product gas. Tar concentrations remained below 6 mg/Nm(3) in all experiments, showing the tar conversion activity of the catalyst combination to be very good. The progress of the methane steam reforming over the individual catalysts was followed by gas sampling upstream from, in-between, and downstream from the catalysts. It appeared that, in the lower temperature range (780-880 degrees C), the methane reforming activity of the PGM catalyst is higher than that of the nickel catalysts. Above 880 degrees C, however, the reforming activity is quite similar. In conclusion, the route from pyrolysis oil to syngas via autothermal catalytic reforming, and without using any external energy sources, seems attractive