A crucial role of O2 and O2 on mayenite structure for biomass tar steam reforming over Ni/Ca12Al14O33

Newly synthesized nickel calcium aluminum catalysts (Ni/Ca₁₂Al₁₄O₃₃) were tested in a fixed bed reactor for biomass tar steam reforming, toluene as tar destruction model compound. Four catalysts (Ni/Ca₁₂Al₁₄O₃₃) were prepared with Ni loading amount from 1, 3, 5 to 7 wt%, even 1% loading catalyst also showed excellent performance. Catalysts aged experiments in the absence (60 h on stream) and presence of H₂S were characterized by BET, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Raman spectra. It was observed that Ni/Ca₁₂Al₁₄O₃₃ showed excellent sustainability against coke formation due to the “free oxygen” in the catalysts. It also exhibited higher H₂S-poisoning resistance property compared to the commercial catalysts Ni/Al₂O₃ (5%) and Ni/CaO_0.5/MgO_0.5. Raman spectra revealed that “free oxygen O₂⁻ and O₂²⁻” in the structure of the catalysts could be substituted by sulfur then protected Ni poisoning on some degree, but reactivation experiments by O₂ flowing showed that the sulfide Ni/Ca₁₂Al₁₄O₃₃ was difficult to completely restore, incorporation of sulfur in the structure only partly regain by O₂. The kinetic model proposes, as generally accepted, a first-order reaction for toluene with activation energy of 82.06 kJ mol⁻¹ was coincident with the literature data. The Ni/Ca₁₂Al₁₄O₃₃ catalyst was effective and relative cheap, which may be lead to reduction in the cost of hot gas cleaning process.