Yu Zhang

By Dongdong Feng, Yu Zhang, Yijun Zhao and Shaozeng Sun

Biomass tar is the bottleneck in the development of efficient utilization of biomass syngas. The in-situ catalytic cracking biomass tar with multi-active biochar is investigated in a two-stage fluidized bed-fixed bed reactor. It indicates that adding H2O or CO2 is found to improve the homogeneous and heterogeneous cracking of biomass tar. Activation of biochar by H2O or CO2 impacted the morphology of biochar surface and distribution of metal species. H2O or CO2 affects the creation and regeneration of pore structures, influencing the biochar structure and dynamical distribution of alkali and alkaline earth metal species (AAEMs), which ensure enough surface active sites to maintain the catalytic activity of biochar. The tar cracking into low-quality tar or small-molecule gas may be catalyzed by K, while the combination of tar with biochar would be promoted by Ca. The volatilizations of K and Ca, due to their reaction with volatiles, are to a large extent in accordance with their valences and boiling points. The subsequent transformation from the small aromatic ring systems to the larger ones occurs due to the volatile-biochar interaction. During tar cracking over biochar, K and Ca act as the active sites on biochar surface to promote the increase of active intermediates (C▬O bonds and C▬O▬K/Ca).

Part of the book: Applications of Biochar for Environmental Safety