Ash of palm empty fruit bunch as a natural catalyst for promoting the CO2 gasification reactivity of biomass char

► We report the promoting effect of EFB-ash on CO2 gasification reactivity of biomass char. ► 10% EFB-ash loaded char has the highest impact on enhancing the char reactivity. ► Random pore model was adopted to interpret the experimental results. ► Activation energy of 10% EFB-ash loaded char was about 159 kJ/mol.