Comparison of Co/MgO and Ni/MgO catalysts for the steam reforming of naphthalene as a model compound of tar derived from biomass gasification

The catalytic performance data showed that Co/MgO catalyst had higher activity (conv., 23%, 3 h) than any kinds of Ni/MgO catalysts tested in this study, under lower steam/carbon mole ratio (0.6) and higher concentration of fed naphthalene (3.5 mol%) than those used in the other works. The steam reforming of naphthalene proceeded when there was a stoichiometric ratio between the carbon atoms of naphthalene and H2O over Co catalyst; however, the activation of excess H2O happened over the Ni catalyst and this phenomenon can lead to having lower activity than Co catalyst. We concluded that these observations should be attributed to different catalytic performances between Co/MgO and Ni/MgO catalysts.