Overcoming carbon deposition in non-thermal plasma catalyzed biomass tar reforming: Innovative strategies employed by GPPC systems

• Published in: Fuel (Guildford) 2025-02, Vol.381, p.133649, Article 133649
• Main Authors: Chen, Heng, Meng, Junguang, Tang, Jiaming, Wang, Xinye, Liu, Yiqiang, Bu, Changsheng, Zhang, Jubing, Liu, Changqi, Xie, Hao, Piao, Guilin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biomass tar; Graded post-plasma catalysis; Synergistic effect; Tar reforming
• ISSN: 0016-2361
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fuel.2024.133649

[Display omitted] •Enhanced tar treatment with graded post-plasma catalysis (GPPC).•Optimal conditions for GPPC system were determined.•GPPC provides excellent stability and carbon deposition resistance.•Catalyst and plasma have significant synergistic effects. Tar is a key issue hindering the commercial application of biomass gasification. Graded post-plasma catalysis (GPPC) provides a new idea for tar treatment. The system solves the paradox of plasma discharge intensity and catalyst activity for temperature setting. The effects of GPPC system operating parameters (graded temperature, discharge power and S/C), catalyst configurations (metal ratio and intervention) on the catalytic activity and stability were investigated in conjunction with multiscale characterization of the catalyst. The results show that the benzene conversion of the system can be improved by adding appropriate amount of steam, loading Fe first and then Ni, and shortening the distance between the two reaction intervals. In the GPPC system, there was no significant change in activity after the catalyst oxidation regeneration cycle, and the H2 yield was consistently exceeded 70 %. Compared with in-plasma catalysis (IPC) and thermal catalysis (TC), GPPC has excellent performance with an effective gas yield of 3757.25 mL/g at 48th hour and a H2 yield of 72.1 %, especially with minimal carbon deposition. IPC system at 10 h, the effective gas yield and H2 yield have been reduced to 1261.52 mL/g and 27.2 % respectively. The results of the study further confirmed that GPPC is more capable of utilizing the advantages of non-thermal plasma (NTP) and catalysts than conventional IPC.