Effect of Preparation Method on the Activity of Red Mud Based Catalysts in Hydrogen Production From Biomass

Abstract

Biomass gasification is a promising technology for hydrogen production. This study presents H2 production from olive tree pruning (OTP), employing a fixed dual-bed reactor that combines OPT gasification and volatile reforming. The thermal steam gasification of OTP was performed at 850 °C, followed by the catalytic gasification of volatiles at different temperatures. Red mud (RM) and nickel loaded red mud (Ni-RM) catalysts were used as catalytic bed material. The effects of different operating parameters, i.e. catalytic bed temperature, catalyst preparation method (thermal reduction & plasma reduction), and nickel ratios in catalyst on the yield and composition of produced gases were investigated. The catalyst prepared by reduction under non-thermal plasma showed no effect on the gasification due to the insufficient temperature for the reduction of Fe2O3 and NiO. The results indicated that the bottom bed temperature had a significant effect on the H2 yield, especially in the catalytic experiments. The RM alone shows almost the same activity with Ni-RM on the H2 yield; 1076 mL gas/g OTP and 1128 mL gas/g OTP, respectively. The results of present study showed that reduced RM had as much catalytic activity as Ni loaded reduced RM in hydrogen production. © 2025