Steam gasification of safflower seed cake and catalytic tar decomposition over ceria modified iron oxide catalysts

• Catalytic performance of CeO2-Fe2O3 catalysts with the optimum composition was much higher than that of the individual CeO2 and Fe2O3 in the steam gasification of biomass.
• Because of red-ox properties, CeO2 addition on Fe2O3 catalyst improved the catalytic activity of iron based catalysts for tar degradation and hydrogen production.
• Steam gasification is one of the promising methods to produce hydrogen from safflower seed cake.

Catalytic steam gasification of safflower seed cake was carried out using a double-bed microreactor in a two-stage process in the presence of ceria oxide (CeO2) modified iron oxide (Fe2O3) catalysts with different CeO2–Fe2O3 ratios. The effects of both catalyst and the temperature of catalytic bed on the tar decomposition and the overall gaseous product yield were investigated comparatively. It was found that ceria modified iron oxide catalysts had higher reactivity than that of the individual Fe2O3 and CeO2 for the catalytic tar decomposition in safflower seed cake steam gasification. The CeO2–Fe2O3 catalyst with 50 wt.% of Fe2O3 exhibited the excellent performance for tar conversion at 700 °C. A comparison of tar decomposition from thermal run and catalytic run showed that in thermal run tar decomposition was progressed via steam reforming only. However, in the presence of catalyst, tar decomposition occurred via both steam reforming and water gas shift reaction. As a conclusion, ceria promoted iron catalysts were found to be active for both hydrogen production and tar decomposition in steam gasification of lignocellulosic biomass.

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