Gasification and catalytic reforming of corn straw in closed-loop reactor

A closed-loop gasification and catalytic reforming apparatus was applied for producing syngas from corn straw with upgraded syngas quality. Four nickel based catalysts at 10% and that at 5-15% loadings on γ-A1₂O₃ were synthesized and tested. Effects of reforming temperature (700-900 °C), steam to biomass ratio (S/B, 0.5-2.5), catalyst to biomass ratio (C/B, 0.2-0.6) on the syngas quality and the carbon conversion and gasification efficiency were investigated. Incorporation of reforming reaction with 10% Ni/γ-A1₂O₃ catalyst leads to the highest CO content (50.2%) and lowest CO₂ content (7.5%) amongst the four tested catalysts and amongst the Ni/γ-A1₂O₃ catalysts at different Ni loading. The syngas was upgraded by both the decoking reaction in the pyrolytic chamber and the steam reforming and water shift reactions in the reforming chamber.