Toluene steam reforming using coprecipitated Ni/Al catalysts modified with lanthanum or cobalt

Toluene has been chosen as a model compound of biomass gasification tar and its destruction has been studied by steam reforming. The experiments have been performed in a bench scale installation that uses a fluidized bed reactor with a technology very similar to the Waterloo Fast Pyrolysis Process (WFPP). All the experiments have been carried out at 650 °C and atmospheric pressure. Ni/Al/La catalysts with La/Ni ratios of 0, 0.044, 0.088 and 0.13 have been tested, the middle two showing the best performance. Ni/Co/Al catalysts with Co/Ni ratios of 0, 0.025, 0.10 and 0.25 have also been tested. The Ni/Co/Al catalyst with the best results is that with a Co/Ni ratio of 0.10. For the Ni/Co/Al catalyst with Co/Ni = 0.10, the influence of the steam/carbon molar (S/C) ratio on gas yields has been studied for values from 5.5 to 1.5. Yields of H2 and CO2 decrease, while CH4 and CO yields increase when the S/C ratio diminishes. The influence of the catalyst weight/toluene flow rate (W/mt) ratio has been analyzed for Ni/Al/La catalyst with a La/Ni ratio of 0.088 and Ni/Co/Al catalyst with Co/Ni = 0.10. For both catalysts, carbon conversion to gas, total gas, H2 and CO2 yields increase when the W/mt ratio increases.