Biomass to hydrogen-rich syngas via catalytic steam reforming of bio-oil

Hydrogen-rich syngas production from the catalytic steam reforming of bio-oil from fast pyrolysis of pinewood sawdust was investigated by using La1−xKxMnO3 perovskite-type catalysts. The effects of the K substitution, temperature, water to carbon molar ratio (WCMR) and bio-oil weight hourly space velocity (WbHSV) on H2 yield, carbon conversion and the product distribution were studied in a fixed-bed reactor. The results showed that La1−xKxMnO3 perovskite-type catalysts with a K substitution of 0.2 gave the best performance and had a higher catalytic activity than the commercial Ni/ZrO2. Both high temperature and low WbHSV led to higher H2 yield. However, excessive steam reduced hydrogen yield. For the La0.8K0.2MnO3 catalyst, a hydrogen yield of 72.5% was obtained under the optimum operating condition (T = 800 °C, WCMR = 3 and WbHSV = 12 h−1). The deactivation of the catalysts mainly was caused by coke deposition.