Partial oxidation reforming of biomass fuel gas over nickel-based monolithic catalyst with naphthalene as model compound

With naphthalene as biomass tar model compound, partial oxidation reforming (with addition of O₂) and dry reforming of biomass fuel gas were investigated over nickel-based monoliths at the same conditions. The results showed that both processes had excellent performance in upgrading biomass raw fuel gas. Above 99% of naphthalene was converted into synthesis gases (H₂+CO). About 2.8 wt% of coke deposition was detected on the catalyst surface for dry reforming process at 750 °C during 108 h lifetime test. However, no coke deposition was detected for partial oxidation reforming process, which indicated that addition of O₂ can effectively prohibit the coke formation. O₂ can also increase the CH₄ conversion and H₂/CO ratio of the producer gas. The average conversion of CH₄ in dry and partial oxidation reforming process was 92% and 95%, respectively. The average H₂/CO ratio increased from 0.95 to 1.1 with the addition of O₂, which was suitable to be used as synthesis gas for dimethyl ether (DME) synthesis.