Hydrogen rich gas production via supercritical water gasification of sugarcane bagasse using unpromoted and copper promoted Ni/CNT nanocatalysts

•Supercritical water gasification of bagasse as a real biomass is studied.•Supercritical water gasification of bagasse in the presence of carbon nanotubes increased hydrogen yield by a factor of 1.91.•Ni/CNTs nanocatalyst increased the hydrogen yield by a factor of 5.84.•Promotion of Ni/CNT with 7.5 wt.% copper decreased the yield of methane by 25.9%.

Supercritical water gasification (SCWG) of sugarcane bagasse (SB) was performed in the presence of unpromoted and copper promoted carbon nanotubes supported nickel (Ni/CNTs) nanocatalyst prepared with impregnation technique. The Ni/CNTs and Ni–Cu/CNTs catalysts were characterized using FT-IR, ICP, BET, XRD, and TEM techniques. Results showed that 20 wt.% nickel over CNTs (20%-Ni/CNTs) had the best performance, on the SCWG of SB, in terms of H2 conversion with the yield of 21.8 (mmol H2/g of SB) comparing with the rest of the Ni/CNTs catalysts. Promotion of Ni/CNTs catalysts with copper increased the total gas and hydrogen yield by 14.4% and 14.7%. The yield of methane is decreased by 25.9%.

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