Development and application of Ni–M/sepiolite (M=Ce, Pr, and La) catalysts in biomass pyrolysis for syngas production

The proposed Ni–M/sepiolite (SEP) catalysts (M=Ce, Pr, and La) were developed to improve syngas production in biomass pyrolysis. A homogeneous precipitation method was used to synthesize these catalysts. These catalysts were characterized using X-ray fluorescence, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy/energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller method. A series of experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of catalyst types and M loading on gas composition and content in gas production. Simultaneously, the catalyst's stability was tested. The experiments showed that the synthesized Ni–La/SEP catalyst with 12 wt% La and 20 wt% Ni loading had a high catalytic activity of improving gas quality compared with Ni–Pr/SEP, Ni–Ce/SEP, and Ni/SEP, giving a high hydrogen yield (41.18 vol.%) and CO yield (32.23 vol.%).