Promoting effect of Pt addition to Ni/CeO2/Al2O3 catalyst for steam gasification of biomass

The modification of Ni/CeO2/Al2O3 with Pt can make the activation by H2 reduction unnecessary, and this indicates that the Pt/Ni/CeO2/Al2O3 catalyst can be activated automatically by the compounds contained in tar. This can be explained by the enhancement of the Ni reducibility by the addition of Pt. The results of the temperature programmed reduction with H2 also support this enhancement. Furthermore, the addition of 0.1% Pt to Ni/CeO2/Al2O3 (4 wt% Ni, 30 wt% CeO2) enhanced the performance in the steam gasification of biomass, compared to Ni/Al2O3 and Ni/CeO2/Al2O3 in terms of low tar yield and high gas yield. This can be related to the Pt–Ni alloy formation indicated by the extended X-ray absorption fine structure analysis.