Synthesis gas reactions
\\n\\n
Released this past November, the list is based on data collected from the Web of Science and highlights some of the world’s most influential scientific minds by naming the researchers whose publications over the previous decade have included a high number of Highly Cited Papers placing them among the top 1% most-cited.
\\n\\nWe wish to congratulate all of the researchers named and especially our authors on this amazing accomplishment! We are happy and proud to share in their success!
\\n"}]',published:!0,mainMedia:null},components:[{type:"htmlEditorComponent",content:'IntechOpen is proud to announce that 179 of our authors have made the Clarivate™ Highly Cited Researchers List for 2020, ranking them among the top 1% most-cited.
\n\nThroughout the years, the list has named a total of 252 IntechOpen authors as Highly Cited. Of those researchers, 69 have been featured on the list multiple times.
\n\n\n\nReleased this past November, the list is based on data collected from the Web of Science and highlights some of the world’s most influential scientific minds by naming the researchers whose publications over the previous decade have included a high number of Highly Cited Papers placing them among the top 1% most-cited.
\n\nWe wish to congratulate all of the researchers named and especially our authors on this amazing accomplishment! We are happy and proud to share in their success!
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Before his current appointments, he worked four years for the University of Tokyo. He earned a Postdoctorate in Politics from the University of Tokyo, a PhD and MA in Political Sociology from Warwick University (UK), a MA in Public Policy from Bocconi University, and a BA in Political Science from Calabria University. He is the author of many books such as “Nonprofit Organizations in England and Japan” (2012) and “Empirical Policy Research” (2013), and editor of “Social Welfare” (2012), \\"Social Enterprise\\" (2016), and \\"An Analysis of Contemporary Social Welfare Issues\\" (2016). 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His research interests include design and fabrication of the specialty fiber fields such as spun optical fibers, polarization-maintaining optical fibers, doping fibers, specialty optical fibers with radiation-hardness, etc. His awards include Jiangsu Province Science and Technology Progress Award (Second Prize) in 2008.",institutionString:"Shanghai University",position:null,outsideEditionCount:0,totalCites:0,totalAuthoredChapters:"2",totalChapterViews:"0",totalEditedBooks:"0",institution:{name:"Shanghai University",institutionURL:null,country:{name:"China"}}},coeditorTwo:{id:"312270",title:"Dr.",name:"Jianzhong",middleName:null,surname:"Zhang",slug:"jianzhong-zhang",fullName:"Jianzhong Zhang",profilePictureURL:"https://mts.intechopen.com/storage/users/312270/images/system/312270.jpg",biography:"Prof. Jianzhong Zhang received his Bachelor degree of condensed-state physics from the Lanzhou University in 2000 and obtained his Master and Doctoral degrees in optical engineering from the Harbin Engineering University in 2004 and 2007, respectively. He then joined the School of Physics at Harbin Engineering University. Currently, he is a full professor of Harbin Engineering University. During 2006 he visited UNSW as a visiting fellow supervised by Professor Gang-Ding Peng. His research interests are in optical fiber laser, optical fiber sensors and wave characteristics in periodical structure. He has published more than 100 articles in international journals and conferences. He is currently the PI for six research projects including two funded by the National Science Foundation of China.",institutionString:"Harbin Engineering University",position:null,outsideEditionCount:0,totalCites:0,totalAuthoredChapters:"0",totalChapterViews:"0",totalEditedBooks:"0",institution:{name:"Harbin Engineering University",institutionURL:null,country:{name:"China"}}},coeditorThree:null,coeditorFour:null,coeditorFive:null,topics:[{id:"158",title:"Metals and Nonmetals",slug:"metals-and-nonmetals"}],chapters:[{id:"73736",title:"Introductory Chapter: Bismuth-Related Optoelectronic Materials",slug:"introductory-chapter-bismuth-related-optoelectronic-materials",totalDownloads:83,totalCrossrefCites:0,authors:[{id:"226148",title:"Dr.",name:"Yanhua",surname:"Luo",slug:"yanhua-luo",fullName:"Yanhua Luo"}]},{id:"73314",title:"Development of Bismuth-Doped Fibers (BDFs) in Optical Communication Systems",slug:"development-of-bismuth-doped-fibers-bdfs-in-optical-communication-systems",totalDownloads:131,totalCrossrefCites:0,authors:[{id:"316397",title:"Dr.",name:"Rifat M.",surname:"Dakhil Alsingery",slug:"rifat-m.-dakhil-alsingery",fullName:"Rifat M. 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The presence of tar in product gas may cause blockage and corrosion of equipment and be responsible for fouling or reducing overall efficiency of processes. By far, tar removal is the most problematic during biomass gasification. Hence, the successful implementation of gasification technology for gas engine, gas turbine or fuel cell based power projects depends much on the effective and efficient removal or conversion of tar from the product gas. Beside that the catalytic steam reforming tar is one of the most promising methods to suppress the problems. Biomass product gas is usually low high heating value; therefore enhancement of product gas quality is other important target. We propose a research topic that use of nickel loaded brown coal char as a new catalyst for decomposing tar from biomass gasification in fluidized bed gasifier. The method is promising to achieve some advantages of low cost by use of low rank coal as catalyst support material, high catalyst activity and enhancement of product gas quality. Yallourn brown coal has been selected for preparing catalyst support. The coal is low rank with high moisture content, low heat value and high oxygen content. It is hard to use for generating energy. However, it has many outstanding features such as less ash and sulfur content, and including abundant of oxygen–containing functional groups such as carboxyl and phenol groups which are available for ion–exchange with metals. In this research work, a nickel loaded brown coal char (Ni/BCC) was prepared by ion–exchange method, dried at 380 K in nitrogen for 24 h, and then pyrolysed at 923 K in nitrogen for 90 min. The works have been carried out is that using nickel loaded brown coal to decompose tar in pyrolysis and steam gasification process. It was carried out in a two–stage fixed–bed reactor and a lab scale fluidized bed gasifier under mild conditions (temperature, steam, space velocity, operation time). Inside of gasifier is constructed by two beds, the primary one is a fluidized bed with sand, and the second one is a catalyst bed. The new catalyst has shown high catalytic activity and stable activity and given the high quality of product gas in presence of steam, approximately 90% of biomass tar was decomposed and useful gas components (CH4, CO, and H2) yields were higher than those of Ni/Al2O3 catalyst. Ni/BCC catalyst was characterized and exhibited good dispersion of nickel particles, ultra–fine Ni less than 15 nm and having a large surface area about 350 m2/g. Moreover, at the end of catalyst life span, the catalyst can be disposed of simply by gasifying/burning the coal char, during which the energy value of the char support can be recovered. Also, the agglomerated nickel residues could be used as functional materials of powder metallurgy and battery development. The general results suggest that the Ni/BCC catalyst offers a potential to be used as a tar steam reforming catalyst in biomass gasification.
There are still many questions related to tar and the problems they may cause. Tar is a viscous black liquid derived from pyrolysis of organic matter as well as a complex mixture of hydrocarbons [1]. Various research groups are defining tar differently. In the EU/IEA/US-DOE meeting on tar measurement protocol held in Brussels in the year 1998, it was agreed by a number of experts to define tar as all organic contaminants with a molecular weight larger than benzene [2]
The presence of tar in product gas may cause blockage and corrosion of equipment and be responsible for fouling or reducing overall efficiency of processes. Tar is formed when biomass is heated the molecular bonds of the biomass break; the smallest molecules gaseous, the larger molecules are called primary tars. These primary tars, which are always fragments of the original material, can react to secondary tars by further reactions at the same temperature and to tertiary tars at high temperature [3, 4, 5, 6] Figure 1 show tar is quite complex and hard to decompose. By far, tar removal is the most problematic during biomass gasification. Hence, the successful implementation of gasification technology for gas engine/turbine based power projects depends much on the effective and efficient removal/conversion of tar from the producer gas. Up to now, a great amount of work concerning tar reduction or reforming has been reported with abundant technologies to remove tar from biomass product gas.
J. Han, and H. Kim had divided tar removal methods into five groups: mechanical methods (using cyclone, filters ceramic), granular beds, Electrostatic precipitators and Scrubbers; self-modification, selecting optimal operation parameters for gasifier or using a low tar gasifier; Catalytic cracking; Thermal cracking and Plasma methods [5]. The review shows that the primary use of mechanism methods is to capture the fly ash or particles from product gas; the effect on tar removal is also very good. However, these methods only remove or capture the tar from product gases, while the energy in tar is lost. The self–modification and other methods can not only reduce the tar but also convert the tar into useful gases. The self–modification methods include: selecting better gasifer, and optimizing operation parameters. Tar reduced by modifying operation parameter is at the expense of reducing the heat value of gases. Catalyst cracking and thermal cracking are generally used to decompose or reduce tar though there are still some disadvantages. Plasma technology cannot only effectively remove fly ash, NOx and SO2, but also sharply decrease the formation of tar during biomass gasification. In order to get highly efficient tar decomposition, the temperature of thermal cracking needs to be very high, which results in operating cost increase. Catalyst cracking can modify the composition of product gases at low temperature with high carbon conversion efficiency. Nevertheless, there still exists a short coming such as: the commercial Ni-based and alkali metal catalysts will be inactive by deposited carbon, and H2S. The newly developed novel catalyst can overcome the disadvantages by use of expensive metals (Co, Pt, Ru, Pd and Rh), and also catalyst supports (Al2O3, Al, SiO, TiO2, ZrO2, MgO or WO3) and perform tar removal with high and stable activity even under the presence of high concentration of H2S in some cases. In order to satisfying both high and stable activity and good price, the development of catalyst meets the need to be continuing.
Formation of biomass tars and compounds formed
Due to the advantages of converting tar into useful gases and adjusting the compositions of product gases, catalyst cracking has been of interest since the middle 1980s. The simplified mechanism for catalyst tar reforming can be described as follows [7–9]. First, methane or other hydrocarbons are dissociatively adsorbed onto a metal site where metal catalyzed dehydrogenation occurs. Water is also dissociatively adsorbed onto the ceramic support, hydroxylating the surface. At the appropriate temperature, the OH radicals migrate to the metal sites, leading to oxidation of the intermediate hydrocarbon fragments and surface carbon to CO + H2. David [9,10] summarized the criteria for catalyst as follows:
the catalysts must be effective in removing tar;
if the desired product was syngas, the catalysts must be capable of reforming methane;
The catalysts should provide a suitable syngas ratio for the intended process;
the catalysts should be resistant to deactivation as a result of carbon fouling and sintering;
the catalysts should be easily regenerated.
The catalysts should be strong; and
the catalysts should be inexpensive.
Moulijn J.A. [11] has classified main causes of the deactivation into five reasons that are poisoning, fouling, thermal degradation (sintering, evaporation) initiated by the often high temperature, mechanical damage and corrosion/leaching by the reaction mixture. The deactivation phenomenon inside a catalyst particle is described on Figure 2 [11]. Among them, thermal degradation reason often occurs during catalyst reforming tar at relative high temperature (Figure 3).
Major types of deactivation in heterogeneous catalysis
Schematic of the various stages in the formation and growth of particles from monomer dispersion ((a): Clusters of atoms (or small metal particles); two–dimensional clusters, and; three–dimensional particles; (b): Particles might move and coalesce; (c): Atoms move from one particle to another, either by volatilisation or by surface migration.)
Nikel based catalysts\n\t\t\t\t
Nickel has been developed with various promoters and carriers for decomposing tar and tar models [7–27].
Zhang [13] investigated tar catalytic destruction in a tar conversion system consisting of a guard bed and catalytic reactor. Three Ni based catalysts (ICI46–1, Z409 and RZ409) were proven to be effective in eliminating heavy tars (99% destruction efficiency). The experimental results demonstrated that space velocity (1500 –6000) had little effect on gas compositions, while increasing temperature boosted hydrogen yield and reduced light hydrocarbons (CH4 and C2H4) formation, which suggested that tar decomposition was controlled by chemical kinetics.
Furusawa et al. [14] reported that 10 wt% Ni/MgO (873 K) catalyst showed the best performance. Nickel supported on silica was active for tar catalyst cracking methane at relatively low temperature (823 K) was described by Zhang [9].
Srinakruang et al.[15,16] has developed Ni/Dolomite as highly efficient sulphur and coking resistance catalyst, and reported that calcining at 500 oC exhibited the most effective catalyst among Ni/SiO2 and Ni/Al2O3; the poisoning effect was enhanced by increasing the reaction temperature and steam/C ratio; higher activity, durability and coking resistance.
Sato et al. [17], has developed Ni–WO3/MgO–CaO catalyst for naphthalene and toluene reforming. The results exhibited a better resistance to sulfur and coking catalyst; tar reforming to better than 90% and 100 h steady tar reforming operation (in H2S) at 800–850 oC.
Dou et al.[18] compared five catalysts on tar removal from fuel gases in a fixed–bed reactor. The Y–zeolite and NiMo catalysts were found to be the most effective about 100% tar removal can be achieved at 550 oC. It was also observed that process variables like temperature and space velocity had very significant effect on tar removal.
Baker [19] also mentioned the phenomena in their experiments. In order to overcome the shortcoming of the commercial Ni–based catalyst, many Ni–based catalysts were developed.
Miyazawa et al. [20] has prepared Ni (Ni/Al2O3, Ni/ZrO2, Ni/TiO2, Ni/CeO2 and Ni/MgO) catalyst to reformed tar in the partial oxidation (POT) and steam introduction. Results have been achieved: the order of the performance at 823 K was as follows: Ni/Al2O3 > Ni/ZrO2 > Ni/TiO2 > Ni/CeO2 > Ni/MgO > no catalyst; Ni/CeO2 showed smaller amount of coke than other catalysts; in the POT, much higher tar conversion and lower coke yield were obtained than that in SRT using fixed bed reactor.
It is very important to increase the thermal efficiency of coal conversion for not only protecting the limited coal resources but also reducing CO2 and air pollutant emission. Steam gasification of coal is one of the most promising energy conversion technologies for producing hydrogen.
Brown Coal\n\t\t\t\t
Brown coal or lignite is a low rank with high moisture content of around 60 %, low heat value and high oxygen content. Therefore, it is hard to use for converted to useful energy. However, it is concluding many outstanding features such as less ash and sulfur content, and especially, including abundant of oxygen–containing functional groups such as carboxyl and phenol groups which are available for ion–exchange with metals. The structural unit of coal models is shown in Figure 4d.
Structural unit of coal models (a: anthracite coal; b: bituminous coal; c: bituminous coal;d: brown coal)
Catalytic coal gasification
Tomita [21, 22] has reported low temperature gasification of Yallourn coal catalysed by nickel. By the different way of prepared catalyst as usual like conventional impregnation methods, coal was mixed with an aqueous solution of hexamine nickel carbonate. This mixture gave a perfect homogeneous, catalyst bearing coal. Analysis product gas he found that the gases in the rapid stage of char gasification at 723 K presented mainly hydrogen and carbon dioxide. The study demonstrates the first time that nickel catalyst can enhance gasification reactivity in a similar manner as observed for activate carbon.
Tomita [23, 24] continued to carry out nickel brown coal gasification with various gasification conditions such as amount weight of nickel loaded on coal, various temperatures. The good results exhibited carbon conversion reached 85%, with 30 min for steam gasification at low temperature as 723 K.
Ohtsuka [25] reported calcium catalysed steam gasification of Yallourn brown coal with the same way of preparation catalyst as Tomita have done. The results also showed that high activity for calcium catalyst steam gasification of brown coal.
Takarada [26] investigated catalyst steam gasification of coal by mixing of K–exchange brown coal. The results gave evident that rate of enhancement of K–exchange Yallourn coal by physical mixing method is independent of the caking property of higher rank coal; Potassium is a highly suitable catalyst for catalytic gasification.
Recently, Miki [27] also carried out pyrolysis and gasification of coal which was loaded Ni by ion– exchanged method, and again proved nickel loaded brown coal has a high activity in coal gasification.
The procedure of ion exchange is shown in Figure 5 and Figure 6. Yallourn (YL) coal char was used as catalyst support. YL coal (Australian brown coal) received in the form of briquettes. The coal was crushed, sieved to a particle size range of 1 – 2 mm in diameter, and then dried at 380 K for 12 h. The nickel addition to the coal matrix was achieved by ion–exchange with a solution of basic hexa ammine nickel carbonate (NH3)6NiCO3 (Figure 5, 6). The coal was mixed with the (NH3)6NiCO3 solution for 24 h and then recovered by filtration. The recovered solid was washed with distilled water and filtered again. Then, the washed solid was dried under N2 flow at 380 K for 24 h. Last, raw catalysts were produced.
Catalysts was characterized by powder X–ray diffraction on XRD; M03XHF22, Mac Science Co., Ltd, using CuKα radiation(40 kV, 30 mA) in order to identify the potential evolution of the crystalline phases during catalyst pyrolysis tests. The diffractograms were recorded a step time of 10 sec. SEM analysis was applied to study the surface structure of Ni/BCC catalyst (FE–SEM; JSM–6700F, JEOL Datum Ltd.). An atomic absorption flame emission spectrophotometer (AA–6400F, Shimadzu Corp.) was used to examine the amount of Ni on raw Ni/BCC (Ni 9 ± 1%–dry). After pyrolyzing with nitrogen gas at 923 K for 90, its weigh loss is approximately 54 %, and therefore, nickel loaded in coal char could be estimated 19.6 ± 2%–char base. The intimacy of the contact between coal char and catalyst was so effective that the reactivity was considerably higher than those prepared by a conventional impregnation method [21–24]. Nitrogen adsorption characterization of catalysts was performed on equipment for automatic gas and vapor adsorption measurement (BELSORP–max, BEL Japan Co. Ltd.). Prior to adsorption measurement, the catalysts were degassed at 573 K for 3 h under a dynamic vacuum. The surface areas of fresh catalysts (Ni/BCC), which were obtained after pyrolysis of raw Ni/BCC at 923 K for 90 min is 350 m2/g [28,29].
Schematic flow diagram of nickel and brown coal ion–exchange procedure
schematic diagram of nickel loaded brown coal char with structure unit of Ni/BCC.
A conventional nickel catalyst (No.C13–4, Ni 20±2 wt % SÜD–CHEMIE CATALYSTS JAPAN, Inc.) that was supported with alumina was also used to compare with Ni/BCC catalyst. It was crushed and sieved to the fraction of 0.5 – 1 mm.
Pyrolysis is an important process in energy recovery from biomass and also as a previous stage to other processes such as gasification. Valuable gases, such as H2 and CO, can also be generated by pyrolysis. These gases can be useful, among other applications, in chemical synthesis and high efficiency combustion systems such as fuel cells.
The hydrogen–rich product gas from biomass pyrolysis is believed to become a valuable energy source with natural carbon dioxide. However, biomass has low energy density, so the enhancement of the product gas quality from biomass gasification is necessary. Beside a particular problem which has not been completely solved so far is tar formation. Catalytic processes are considered as the most promising method with the highest potential to contribute a solution to this problem. Temperature is an important variable in thermal decomposition processes of biomass, significantly influencing the product distribution. Pyrolysis is an endothermic process, and the use of low temperatures in this process decreases the input energy for a system that is very positive from an energetic point of view and the system operation is easier than high temperature systems.
For both catalytic activity and economic reason, a nickel catalyst is the most suitable choice and the most widely used in the industry among metals like Co, Pt, Ru and Rh, which were investigated by many authors [10,17–23]. Moreover, nickel based catalysts are reported to be quite effective not only for tar reduction, but also for decreasing the amount of nitrogenous compounds such as ammonia [24]. In most reports, conventional nickel catalysts, which had been developed for steam tar reforming, were tested [6,9,13,15,25,26]. However, the investigations are still limited because of coking [19,22] or the use of expensive materials as catalyst supports (CeO2, Al2O3, Al, SiO2, TiO2, ZrO2, MgO or WO3). Among the above investigations, the most interesting one concerning the current study is brown coal gasification by the addition of a nickel catalyst in fluidized bed gasification at low temperature [21–23]. However, nickel catalyst has only been used for coal gasification itself.
To satisfy both high quality of product gas and use of a cheaper catalyst support (brown coal char), in this study, nickel loaded brown coal char catalyst has been developed for the new purpose of decomposing tarry material from woody biomass pyrolysis. A suitable temperature for catalytic tar decomposition was investigated in a two–stage fixed bed reactor. The effect of temperature on gas yield and carbon conversion have been discussed in detail and compared in the case of non catalyst and Ni/BCC catalyst. The better temperature is a reference result, being used in fluidized bed gasification which is available for continuous tests to assess durability. Catalytic activity was tested, evaluated by woody biomass pyrolysis in a fluidized bed gasifier for both of Ni/BCC and reference catalyst Ni/Al2O3. In a lab scale fluidized bed gasifier (FBG) Experiments, inside of FBG reactor is constructed by two beds, the primary one is a fluidized bed with sand where biomass was fed to produce tar, and the other is a catalyst bed that is used to evaluate and to compare catalytic activity between the new catalyst and a conventional Ni/Al2O3 catalyst. The Ni/BCC catalyst is prepared by ion exchange method, dried at 380 K in nitrogen for 24 h, and is then calcined at 923 K in nitrogen for 90 min. Sample for characterization of catalyst was prepared on the fixed–bed reactor under various conditions such as nickel loaded brown coal particle size range of 0.5 to 2 mm, pyrolysis temperature range of 823 to 1023 K that are needed to investigate the effect both of catalyst particle size and pyrolysis temperature on crystallite size of Ni/BCC. The temperature as a function of gas yield and stable activity of catalyst absence of steam are investigated in this chapter.
The two–stage fixed–bed quartz reactor
Schematic flow diagram of the two–stage fixed–bed quartz reactor
The fluidized bed gasifier
Schematic flow diagram of fluidized bed gasifier
Figure 9 illustrates the gas yield and the biomass carbon balance of woody red pine pyrolysis in a two fixed–bed quartz reactor. In the case Ni/BCC catalyst, total gas yield increased drastically at a catalyst bed temperature of 923 K, at which the yield of CO and H2 achieved was 21.2 and 29.5 [mmol/g–sample daf], respectively, approximately three and six times in comparison to sand (Figure 9(a)). It was considered that tarry material was efficiently decomposed by the Ni/BCC catalyst. If we consider the effect of catalytic pyrolysis temperature on gas yield, Figure 9 (a) also shows that the gas yield increased by increasing temperature from 823 to 923 K, thus suggesting tar decomposition can be controlled by chemical kinetics.
Although there was no direct measurement of tar, we have the biomass carbon balance, which is illustrated in Figure 9(b). Among total carbon in biomass, percentages of carbon in product gas (C_ gas) and carbon in char (C_char) could be obtained by analyzing product gas and product char, respectively. Carbon in tar (C_tar) was estimated fairly by a different method: C_tar = 100 – (C_ gas + C_char). In the case of Ni/BCC, we could assume that the total carbon of product gas was released from biomass pyrolysis because the pyrolysis time of 90 min was enough to release most releasable carbon in Ni/BCC at 923 K. The amount of C_chars was almost constant in all cases, because the char is accumulated in the first bed without contacting the catalyst particles at the same temperature of 1173 K. In the case of catalytic tar decomposition, the amount of C_gas increased drastically compared to no catalyst at 923 K. That is to say, the tar was decomposed over Ni/BCC catalyst by Equation, Tar →CO + H2 + CO2 + CH4 + C2H4 + other hydrocarbon.
Effect of temperature on catalyst pyrolysis: (a) gas yields and (b) biomass carbon balance (space velocity 3000)
When using Ni/BCC catalyst, C_tar approaches zero at 923 K. Moreover, we did not observe tar adhered on the reactor. Thus, it suggests almost all of the tar was decomposed at 923 K under the pyrolysis experimental conditions.
In the catalytic activity tests, the formation of products were observed for 60 min, and significant heavy tar was not observed on the pipeline and tar traps. All experiments were performed at 923 K under nitrogen carry gas, space velocity 11000. All calculated results of gas yield and C_gas were the average of specific results from various specific sampling times, which started at 10 min after feeding biomass and then in 20 min intervals. The effects of the catalyst on gas yields (CH4, CO, CO2, H2 yield) are illustrated in Figure 10 (a). The bars from left to right show the results for non–catalyst, Ni/Al2O3 and Ni/BCC catalyst. Using Ni/BCC catalyst, CH4, CO, CO2 and H2 yields were almost the same as those of Ni/Al2O3: 2.8, 15.6, 6.3, 23.1 [mmol/g–sample daf], respectively. Especially, both CO and CO2 yields increased drastically by 2 times and H2 by approximately 5 times compared to those of non–catalyst. This result indicates that Ni catalysts are quite effective to decompose tar to useful gases such as CO and hydrogen.
Biomass carbon balance is illustrated in Figure 10 (b). A detailed carbon balance could not be carried out because of difficulty in accurately estimating the tar yield. In a similar way as described above section, we defined C_gas, C_char, C_coke (Deposited carbon on the catalyst) and calculated C_tar:
In the case of no catalyst, C_coke was not observed at all, because coke is assigned to the carbon deposited on the catalyst surface. For the case Ni/BCC catalyst, C_coke was estimated by the difference of carbon in fresh Ni/BCC and carbon in used Ni/BCC catalyst. The amount of C_char was almost constant in all of the cases. This is because the char is accumulated in the fluidized bed without contacting the catalyst particles. In the case of catalytic tar decomposition, the amount of C_gas increased drastically compared to no catalyst. The blank on the top of each bar in Figure 10(b) can be considered as a percentage of C_tar. For Ni/BCC and Ni/Al2O3 catalysts, C_ tar was 12.3 and 8.9% and C_gas was 54.9 and 55.1%, respectively. The results show that the Ni/BCC catalyst could not perform as well as the Ni/Al2O3 catalyst to decompose tar under pyrolysis process. This result might be affected by a part of the deposited carbon being on some of the reactive surface of the Ni catalyst, while the raw Ni/BCC catalyst was calcined due to volatile release from the brown coal. However, the results show that both catalysts are quite active to decompose tar.
Comparison of different catalysts and non–catalyst without steam: (a) gas yields and (b) biomass carbon balance at 923 K and no steam (923 K, sv = 11000)
The aim of current study is to increase the coking resistance ability as well as steam gasification of deposited carbon on Ni/BCC catalyst. It was available to regenerate activity of catalyst. By the way, product gases propose to achieve an enhancement of the product gas quality by not only recovering energy from tar reforming but also addition by–product gas from steam gasification of the Ni/BCC char at relative low temperature. To decompose tar of biomass gasification by the use of Ni/BCC catalyst has been investigated under mild conditions in a laboratory scale fluidized bed gasifier with introducing steam as a gasifying agent and nitrogen as the product gas carrier. A conventional Ni/Al2O3 catalyst also was selected to compare with the Ni/BCC catalyst in the presence of steam. In this study, the Ni/BCC catalyst was consumed at different steam feed rate so as determine the effect of steam feed rate on the crystallite size of catalyst; catalytic tar reforming temperature, the space velocity as a function of the gas yield and biomass carbon conversions in fluidized bed gasifier were investigated. The product gas components was discussed in detail and compared between both cases of the absent of steam and the presence of steam.
Figure 11 shows simple pathway of the woody biomass gasification process with Ni/BCC catalyst. The woody biomass was first pyrolysis to form gas, tar and char at 923 K. Both useful gas and tar passed through the catalyst particles. Tar was dissociatively adsorbed onto a nickel site where nickel catalyzed dehydrogenation occurs. With steam injection tar would be cracked and reformed follow the mechanism.
Schematic pathway of biomass pyrolysis and tar reforming using Ni/BCC catalyst
The chemistry of coal (biomass) gasification is usually depicted to involve the following reactions of carbon and steam [29]. The standard enthalpy change (gram molecules) at 298 K is shown for each reaction. The most important reactions are listed in Table 1[29–31]
Synthesis gas reactions
The conventional Ni/Al2O3 catalyst and Ni/BCC catalyst available for steam reforming were used to test tar reforming performance. As mentioned in section 7.1 and discussed in section 7.3, the deposited carbon may cause for deactivating catalysts due to covering activate site of catalysts. In this section, all experiments were performed under steam injection with s/c: 0.6 mol/mol. The added steam was expected to suppress the deposited carbon on activate surface of catalysts. In this section, the effect of steam addition on tar conversion, gas yields, and carbon conversion were investigated. The reactivity both of the Ni/BCC and Ni/Al2O3 have been compared and discussed in detail.
In the activity tests, the formation of products were observed for 120 min, all calculated results of the gas yields and C_gas were the average of the specific results from various specific sampling times, which started at 20 min after feeding biomass and then in 20 min intervals.
As illustrated in Figure 12 (a), the gas yields are shown lowest for non–catalyst, while higher gas yields have achieved for the catalysts. The great improvement of product gas for the case of Ni/BCC catalyst should be given more attention. Most main gas components (CH4, CO, CO2, H2) were higher than those of Ni/Al2O3 catalyst. Especially, in the case of the Ni/BCC catalyst, CO and H2 yield were 10.8 and 12.3 [mmol/ g–sample daf] higher than those of the Ni/Al2O3 catalyst. These satisfactory results could be explained by a part of the deposited carbon on the Ni/BCC catalyst and Ni/ BCC char had been gasified in the presence of steam according to the reaction pathway as following reaction equations (Eqs. (7-4), (7-5), and (7-6)) in the Table 1.
Steam might also produce a larger active surface of Ni/BCC by steam gasification of deposited carbon on the surface of catalyst, which is also evidenced by BET data of used catalyst. After 1 h operation, total free surface of the Ni/Al2O3 decreased from 104 to 32 m2/g due to reduction of nanopores by blockage of deposited carbon and catalyst particle growth. While, total free surface of Ni/BCC lightly reduced from 350 to 339 m2/g, this is due to characteristic porosity of brown coal char. The results indicate that steam plays a very important factor to regenerate activity of the new catalyst by steam gasification of deposited carbon on catalyst and to significantly enhance the quality of product gas of woody biomass gasification.
Biomass carbon balance is illustrated in Figure 12 (b). It was carried out in a similar way as described in section 7.3 The blank on the top of each bar can be considered as a percentage of the C_tar which was calculated by equation 3-5 in section 7.3.
It is different from the pyrolysis process, approximately 16.5% carbon in the fresh Ni/BCC catalyst was gasified in the presence of steam. Its percentage was defined by comparing between carbon in the fresh Ni/BCC catalyst and carbon in used Ni/BCC catalyst. In the presence of the Ni/BCC, biomass carbon conversion (C_gas) was calculated by subtraction between carbon of total product gas and conversion carbon of fresh Ni/BCC, which is mentioned on above. Using that method, we found that highest C_gas and lowest C_tar were achieved as 66 and 4.4% for Ni/BCC catalyst test, respectively, while the C_gas and C_tar obtained were only 59.9% and 7.4% for Ni/Al2O3 catalyst test, respectively. Biomass tar conversion obtained was approximately 88.9% in Ni/BCC catalyst. The results indicate better catalyst activity for Ni/BCC. The detailed mechanism for this high activity is unclear at the present, however, it can be explained that some of the following characteristics of the Ni/BCC catalyst might be associated with this activity: well distribution of nickel particles due to carbon functional group in brown coal, high porosity of the catalyst, mineral component. In addition, Tomita et al. [32] reported that in the presence of steam, tar might be absorbed on catalyst and then be gasified without forming soot. Even if carbon was formed on the catalyst surface, it could be easily gasified. He also found that the carbon deposited over nickel was rapidly gasified with hydrogen at 873 K by reaction 7-11 in Table 1 [33]. This fact that can be observed both of CH4 and H2 yields are higher than that of the Ni/A2O3 catalyst.
Comparison of different catalysts and non–catalyst in the presence of steam: (a) gas yields and (b) biomass carbon balance (923 K, sv = 10000, s/c =0.6)
Nickel loaded brown coal char acts a new catalyst for decomposing tar of woody biomass gasification in a two-stage fixed-bed and fluidized bed gasifier has been investigated. With the advantages of catalytic steam tar reforming is carry out at low temperature. On the other hand, catalytic reforming tar methods have significant possibilities in low temperature gasification processing for high product gas quality. This chapter attempts to a comprehensive knowledge for low temperature pyrolysis and gasification process covering study of operation conditions affecting catalytic activity behaviors of nickel loaded brown coal char catalyst.
For the effect of pyrolysis temperature on the crystalline size of nickel particle size, it is slightly affected by temperature lower than 923 K, but great affected by temperature higher than 973 K.
Two-stage Fixed-bed Reactor has been identified as processing the good activity even at low temperature 923 K.
The Ni/BCC catalyst could not perform as well as the Ni/Al2O3 catalyst to decompose tar under pyrolysis process. However, the results show that both catalysts are good active to decompose tar from biomass pyrolysis at 923 K.
The experimental results show a new catalyst having good catalytic activity and stability in the presence of steam at 923 K.
In the new catalyst application with the presence of steam, Ni/BCC catalyst exhibited more activate than conventional catalyst Ni/Al2O3.
It was found that, catalyst has a good performance and stability at 923 K. Approximately 89.5 % of biomass tar was reformed to useful gas components (CO, H2, CH4).
Steam has already proved to be very important in activating the new catalyst and significantly enhances the quality of product gas of woody biomass gasification with high hydrogen concentration of product gas.
The results suggest that the Ni/BCC catalyst offers a potential to be used as a tar steam reforming catalyst in biomass gasification.
We would like to express my sincere thanks to all who have contributed to this work. We would like to express my gratitude to Ms. Yukiko Ogawa for her help in performing proximate and ultimate analyses of samples. I would like to thank Mrs. Miyoko Kakuage, Mrs. Mayumi Tanaka, Dr. Xianbin Xiao, Dr. Liuyun Li and all of students in Takarada’s Laboratory for their support.
I gratefully acknowledge the financial support of this work by the Project of Prefecture Collaboration of Regional Entities for the Advancement of Technological Excellence, Japan Science and Technology Agency for one and half year. Greatly, I acknowledge the financial support of this work from Asian Jinzai project, Japan Government scholarship for one and half year. We would like to acknowledge Gunma University Faculty of Engineering and Hanoi University of Science and Technology for all their support throughout this research.
According to Tannahill [1], health promotion is an umbrella term covering overlapping fields of health education, prevention and attempts to protect public health through social engineering, legislations, fiscal measures and institutional policies which entail the combination of the best in terms of both theory and practice from a wide range of expert groups (educationists, behavioral scientists, medical practitioners) and non-professionals including the communities involved. For him, health promotion stems largely from a new focus for health services that recognize some basic facts: many contemporary health problems are preventable or avoidable through lifestyle change; modern technology is a bundle of mixed blessings bringing both benefits and risks to health; medical technology is at the phase of diminishing returns (losing efficacy and connection to ordinary people); such non-medical factors as better nutrition, improved living conditions and public health measures have contributed to both health and longevity even more than medical measures; that doctors can cause as well as cure disease; and increasing public desire to attain better or improved quality of life and at the same time demystifying and demedicalising the attainment (achievement) of good health [1].
For the World Health Organization (WHO), health promotion is essentially about engendering a context in which the health and well-being of whole populations or groups are owned mainly by the people concerned, i.e., enabling citizens of local communities to achieve political control and determination of their health [2, 3]. Therefore, health promotion goes beyond mere healthcare but puts health on the policymaking agenda in all sectors and at all levels, directing policymakers to be cognisant or conscious of the health consequences of their decisions and accept responsibilities for health.
Health promotion can be seen as the whole process of enabling or empowering people to increase control over and improve their overall health. It focuses on creating awareness of health issues, engendering behaviour modification consistent with prevention and attitudes to ill health and motivating increased usage of available health facilities. In the pursuit of good health (physical, mental and social well-being), individuals and groups through health promotion are enabled to identify and realize aspirations, satisfy needs and change or cope with the environment in manners consistent with complete good health.
Health promotion is expected to contribute to programme impact by enabling prevention of disease, reduction of the risk factors or behaviors associated with given diseases, promoting and fostering lifestyles and conditions that are conducive to good health and enabling increasing use of available health facilities. Therefore, health promotion creates both the awareness and conscientisation that leads to disease prevention, control of health situations and usage of health services and facilities. It implies individual and collective control and participation in health focusing on behavioral change, socio-economic lifestyles and the physical environment.
Without doubt the WHO’s Ottawa Charter definition of health promotion is very comprehensive and encompasses the core values and guiding objectives of health promotions [3]. It summarily sees health promotion as the process of enabling people to increase control over and improve their health. In line with the above definition, Macdonald and Davies [4] contend that it calls attention to the critical role of the concepts of process and control as the real essence of health promotion. For them, “the key concepts in this definition are ‘process’ and ‘control’, and therefore effectiveness and quality assurance in health promotion must focus on enablement and empowerment. If the activity under consideration is not enabling and empowering it is not health promotion” [4], p. 6.
As the burgeoning literature on health promotion over the years indicate it is a community-driven (inspired), multifaceted and multidisciplinary area of concern that also involves critical sociopolitical, economic and environmental elements and dynamics (see [4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]).
It is important to also understand that even though one can make a distinction between public health and health promotion, in reality both are interconnected and hardly practically separable. In other words, public health is built on health promotion and health promotion is imperative for public health delivery. As has been argued, public health “is synonymous with health promotion in that it aims to implement co-ordinated community action to produce a healthier society” [11], p. 315.
There is no gainsaying the fact that health promotion nowadays has an overwhelming sociopolitical component that is really definitive. In fact, as has been posited, “health promotion activities are by their nature inherently politically based and driven, thus making it impossible to divorce them from the political arena” [11], p. 314. Health promotion becomes a dynamic area of interface between public policy institutions (the state and its agencies), the public (community/people) and the professionals (ranging from the media professionals, public health advocates, social workers to medical practitioners).
The chapter depended on the desk review of extant literature and documents for its information. The main exclusionary criteria in this regard were materials not related to health promotion and materials published before 1984, which were considered extreme-dated. The inclusive criteria were determined by such concepts as public health, public health in Africa, health promotion, health education and awareness and theories and models in health promotion. Such prominent Internet information sites like the WHO, American Public Health Association (APHA), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the Universitats Bibliothek Leipzig (UBL) Online Resources were utilized in gathering materials for the chapter.
There is no gainsaying the fact that effective and result-oriented health promotion practice depends on sound theory [12]. In other words, theory becomes very informative of health promotion practice and activities. In recognition of the above, one would examine briefly the main theories that have implicated health promotion globally. It is important, however, to state here that the choice of a theory or model to guide health promotion should be determined largely by the specific nature of the health issue being addressed, the community or population in view and the sociopolitical context in question. This is because theories and models are simply used in practice in order to plan health programmes, explain and understand health behaviour as well as underpin the identification of appropriate intervention and implement such intervention in ways that are both effective and sustainable.
Despite a plethora of theories and models utilized in health promotion, I will only focus on five of the most popular and commonly used. These are ecological models of health promotion, the Health Belief Model (HBM), Stages of Change Model or the Trans-theoretical Model, Theory of Reasoned Action or Planned Behaviour and the Social Cognitive Theory.
As the name implies, these models focus on the interaction of people with their physical and sociocultural environments. The approach thus recognizes that there are multiple levels of influence on health and health behaviour especially the health seeking behaviour and choices that people make. The ecological models are anchored on five overriding influences which determine and guide health behaviour and response to health issues [13, 14, 15, 16]. These influences are intrapersonal or individual factors (these impact on individual behaviour, e.g., beliefs, knowledge, attitude, etc.); interpersonal factors (these are produced through living with and interacting with other people, e.g., family, friends and social groups/networks; these other people can function as both the source of solidarity and support as well as sources of barriers and constraints to health-promoting behaviour of the individual, e.g., dwelling among chronic smokers or having intense interaction with them may expose one to the dangers of either smoking or the influence of second-hand smoke); community factors (these make reference to social norms that are shared by groups or communities, and such norms whether formal or informal can influence health behaviour and health seeking behaviour of the individual and group members, e.g., relationship between institutions, groups and organizations); institutional factors (policies, rules, regulations and institutional structures that may constrain or even promote healthy behaviour in a given society, e.g., the workplace and voluntary organizations to which the individual belongs are prime examples); public policy factors (policies at different level of governance that regulate, structure or support actions and practices targeted at health outcomes like disease prevention policies and structures enabling early detection, control or response and management of health crisis in the society; these stem from the position of the government and are critical in achieving the goals of public health delivery) (Figure 1).
Ecological models of health promotion (simplified).
As the above pyramid, suggests the individual, interpersonal and community factors are at the base. These factors therefore exert more influence and pressure over the individual’s health behaviour than the institutional and public policy factors as these are more important. In other words, the institutional and public policy factors are literally far from the individual and do not exert as much pressure on his behaviour as those factors that are very close to him both spatially and otherwise. In an age of increasing pessimism in government, people are much driven by interpersonal and community factors than what comes from a typical further off entity.
Given the above, it is obvious that the ecological approach is very pertinent in the understanding of the range of factors that influence people’s health. Its main strength is that it can provide what is called a complete perspective on factors that affect health behaviour and response to health issues especially the role of social and cultural factors or normative patterns on health in the society. It is perhaps very well suited to health intervention and practice in developing societies with an overbearing influence of sociocultural factors on behaviour, attitudes and practice of the people.
This is a theoretical model that has been found useful in guiding both health promotion and strategies for disease prevention. As the name suggests, it focuses on individual beliefs about specific health conditions which predict or direct individual health behaviour [17, 18]. The specific components of this belief that influence health behaviour include perceived susceptibility to the disease; perceived severity of the disease in question; perceived benefits of action (positive benefits of such action) as well as cues to action (awareness of factors that engender action); self-efficacy (belief that action would lead to success); and perceived barriers or obstacles to action (especially if such obstacles are seen as daunting or insurmountable or otherwise).
In the utilization of the HBM in health promotion, there are five main action-related segments that would help in identifying key decision-making points and thus facilitate the utilization of knowledge in guiding health intervention. These are: collection of information (through needs assessments; rapid rural appraisal, etc. in order to determine those at risk of the disease or affliction and specify which population or component of the population to be targeted in the intervention); conveying in unambiguous and clear terms the likely consequences of the health issue in question and its associated risk behaviors in order to facilitate a clear apprehension of its severity; communication (getting information to the target population on the recommended steps to take and the perceived or likely benefits of the recommended action); provision of needed assistance (help the people in both the identification of and reduction of barriers or constraints to action); and demonstration (actions and activities that enable skill development and support aimed at enhancing self-efficacy and increased chances of successful behaviour modification targeted at the health issue in question) (Figure 2).
Health belief model (HBM).
In Africa, the HBM has been very useful in understanding people’s response and behaviour to HIV/AIDS and other chronic diseases. Being a society very flushed with beliefs, the degree of responsiveness to a health situation is often the direct product of a set of beliefs held by the individual and/or by his immediate community.
This model is focused on examining and explaining the individual’s readiness to change his behaviour and sees such change as occurring or happening in successive stages. It therefore adopts a quasi-evolutionary framing of behaviour change in which behaviour change, sustenance and termination are encompassed in six stages. These stages are pre-contemplation (existence of no intention to take any action by the individual); contemplation (thinking about taking action and ruminating on plans to do this soon); preparation (signifies intention to take action and includes the possibility that some steps or preliminary steps to action have been taken already); action (discernible change in behaviour for a brief period of time); maintenance (sustenance of the action taken; behaviour change that is maintained in the long run or long-term behaviour change); and termination (the expressed and discernible desire never to return to prior negative behaviour by the individual concerned).
The above stages are very important in planning behaviour change or modification and recognize that behaviour change is both gradual and takes time. What is needed from the health promoter is that at each of these stages specific interventions or programmes are devised to help the individual progress to the next stage. Also, the recognition that the model may in reality be cyclical rather than lineal, i.e., individuals may progress to the next stage or even regress to previous or lower stages, is important in planning health promotion interventions utilizing this model. It also calls attention to understanding that there are individual differences in the adoption of change, i.e., some people may be swift in behaviour modification, while others may take longer time; but each needs support in order to pull through.
The main contention of this theory is that an individual’s health behaviour is usually determined by his intention to exhibit or display a given behaviour. Therefore, the intention to exhibit a given behaviour (or behaviour intention) is predicated upon or predicted by two main factors, viz. personal attitude to the behaviour in question and subjective or personal norms (an individual’s social and environmental context and the perception the individual has over that behaviour) related to that behaviour.
The basic assumption here is that both positive attitudes and positive subjective norms will generate greater perceived control of behaviour and increase the chances of intentions towards changes in behaviour. The theory generally provides information that can be used in predicting people’s health behaviour and thus in planning and driving through health interventions. It anchors in recognizing the predictors of behaviour-oriented action and the need for supportive social and environmental contexts that facilitate and sustain desirable health behaviour.
This theory combines both the cognition of the individual and the social context of the individual in offering explanation and understanding of health behaviour and response. It seeks to describe the influence of the experience of the individual, his perception of the actions of other people near him and the factors in the person’s immediate environment on health behaviour of the individual. It moves from this general perspective to provide opportunities for social support (defined as conducive to healthy behaviour) and reinforcements that generate behaviour change or modification. In this sense, the SCT depends on the idea of reciprocal determinism which denotes the continuing or uninterrupted interaction among the person’s characteristics, his behaviour and the social context or environment in which the behaviour takes place.
However, the best way to appreciate the SCT is to examine the main components the theory isolates as related to behaviour change at the individual level. These are self-efficacy (belief in one’s ability to control and execute behaviour within a given context); behaviour capability (thorough comprehension of behaviour and the ability to exhibit or perform it); expectations (outcomes or outputs of the behaviour change in question); expectancies (the assignation of value to the above outcome of behaviour and which is important in sustaining the behaviour); self- control (the regulation and monitoring of behaviour of the individual); observational learning (the act of watching others performing the desired behaviour and the outcomes therein as well as modeling that behaviour in question); and reinforcements (incentives and rewards seen as eliciting, encouraging and sustaining behaviour change in the individual) [19].
The three components as the above diagram shows reinforce each other and in the process condition and determine behaviour of the individual even in the context of health as well as choices made therein (Figure 3). The SCT is very pertinent in contexts where desirable health outcomes can be achieved by behaviour modification or change. For instance, certain chronic diseases or health conditions can be tackled through healthy lifestyles and dieting that reduce risk factors and chances of individuals succumbing to such conditions. Therefore, the theory can help frame intervention programmes in this area that focus on changing people’s behaviour and in the process achieve desirable health outcomes.
Illustration of the social cognitive theory (SCT).
Theories and perspectives or models as already indicated are critical in providing explanations of a problem or issue (broadening our understanding and perspective as it were) and also very important in the effort to tackle a given problem or issue in the society especially by way of developing and implementing programmes and interventions. Perhaps, the above underscores why some scholars [20, 21, 22] would highlight the difference between the so-called theories of the problem and theories of action, meaning that while the former aids our apprehension of a given issue or social reality, the latter is important in terms of taking actions or evolving activities to tackle the issue in question.
Health promotion generally implicates a huge element of politics and power dynamics in the sense that only political will and cognition can build discernible changes in health. Lobbying and advocacy are critical tools of health promotion and function within the political arena. The sociopolitical contexts and influences are especially recognizable in the public health sector in the developing world where political will and doggedness are often necessary to drive through even the most salutary change or innovation in the health sector. Also, political forces are equally dominant in the provision of crucial health infrastructure and facilities as well as the reasonable funding demanded by any effective public health system. As Harrison opines health promotion “requires concerted, sophisticated and integrated political action to bring about change and requires professionals concerned with public health to engage with the politics of systems and organizations” [5], 165.
Therefore, health promotion seeks to empower and transform communities by getting them involved in activities that influence public health especially through agenda setting, lobbying and advocacy, consciousness raising and social education [11, 22]. All these are accomplished on terms that are either defined or strictly affected by the socio-economic realities of the people themselves. By its emphasis on the community, health promotion has a heavy sociological frame that prioritizes the values of society as well as mobilization and solidarity in the quest for good and sustainable health. It thus makes assumption that individual members of the society would give equal weight to their own health and the health of their neighbors. In other words, it is often anchored on the uncanny assumption that the health of the individual member of a given society is intertwined with the health of the community as a collective. This means the reference point of health promotion is that one’s health is as good as the health of the members of the community or society as a whole, i.e., common health destiny. Therefore, such things as community empowerment, community competence and overwhelming sense of community are all apprehended as contributing to the health of the communities [23].
Traditionally there are five approaches utilized in health promotion. These are medical (the focus here is to make people free from medically defined diseases and afflictions; it is mainly anchored on prevention strategies and the role of the medical practitioner or expert in ensuring that the patients comply with recommendations); behavioural change (behaviour modification approach that recognizes that people’s behaviour and lifestyles can be changed in order to enable them attain good health, i.e., facilitate adoption of healthy lifestyle); educational (provision of information and knowledge that enable understanding of health issues and build awareness for informed decision-making and choice among people); client-centred (in this situation health practitioners work with clients in order to identify what they know about a given disease and take appropriate action; emphasis on perceiving the client as equal and building the clients self-empowerment that enable them make good choices and control their health outcomes); and societal change (the focus here is on the society or community rather than the individual and seeks to change or modify both the physical and social environments in order to make them consistent with or conducive to good health).
The conventional health promotion methods (modes of operationalizing health promotion and achieving its goals) include health education (the conscious and systematic effort at providing education or knowledge to people on particular and general aspects of health; it is about enabling people through proper and right knowledge on what to do and how to do it; it is empowering and improving people’s capacity to act with regard to their health issues and conditions), information, communication (the above three are often captured in the popular acronym IEC), social mobilization, mediation, community theater and advocacy and lobbying. However, while these methods are okay in differing contexts, a decision on the specific medium to use should be guided by both environment (community conditions) and the nature of the health issue involved. The use of more than one method in any given case is highly recommended especially in Africa where there are broad inequalities in access to social goods and the media. The increasing use of social media especially among young Africans calls attention to their deployment equally in core health promotion. Social media platforms like WhatsApp and blogs can be very potent in this regard.
There is an undeniable need to give high priority to health promotion research in Africa. Such research should aim at enabling a realistic and focused achievement of the goals of health promotion. Broadly, health promotion aims inter alia at:
The prevention of communicable and non-communicable diseases
The reduction of risk factors associated with diseases
The fostering of lifestyles and conditions in the general population that are consistent with overall well-being or good health
The effective/maximal utilization of existing health services and stimulating demand for others where/when necessary
According to the WHO [24] Health Promotion Strategy for the African Region, the contributions of health promotion to the achievement of health objectives include increasing individual knowledge and skills especially through IEC; strengthening community action through the use of social mobilization; enabling the emergence of environments supportive and protective of health by making optimal use of mediation and negotiation; enabling the development of public policies, legislation and fiscal controls which enhance and support health and overall development using advocacy and lobbying; and making prevention and consumer needs the core focus of health services delivery. All these can be positively influenced by research and studies which evaluate the effectiveness of what has been done as well as explore new strategies suitable to the socio-environmental context in question.
However, while research is very critical to achieving the goals of health promotion, it should be concise and focus essentially on the priority health programmes which have been identified by the WHO for the continent. Some of such programmes include the Global Fund for Malaria, HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis, Immunization, Mental Health, the Tobacco Free Initiative and Reproductive Health as well as the fight against recurrent scourge of Ebola, etc. Such research should focus on identifying effective health promotion approaches and communication media to embody and convey the outcomes to communities through community participation; the extent or effectiveness of these means and seeking to still improve overall programme effectiveness and sustainability. Therefore, health promotion research should focus on ascertaining goals/outcomes of health promotion (to guide policy), provide reliable conditions associated with these outcomes or goals, precisely define the changes intended and delineate reliable mechanisms and indicators of M and E of health promotion strategies in specific country/community contexts.
The importance of research is essentially derived from the fact that it calls attention to the need for verification and evidence-based activities in health promotion. These are without doubt the ways of knowing if real empowerment and enabling has been achieved in the process. Thus,
Health promotion is about enabling people to improve their health; and secondly, evidence relevant to health promotion should bear directly on factors that support or prevent enablement and empowerment (determinants of health) activities that support enablement and empowerment (health promotion) and assessing whether these activities have been successful (evaluation of health promotion). [25], p. 357
The above clearly suggest that health promotion should be anchored on evidence or should rest on experience and reality regarding what works or what is possible and effective in any context. In this manner, “evidence-based health promotion involves explicit application of quality research evidence when making decisions” [26], p. 126. Research is even more foundational in health promotion since health promotion efforts need to be anchored on agreed definitions and values of health promotion. As Seedhouse contends the failure to be explicit about definitions and values generates conceptual confusion in research as well as sloppy practice [27].
The evaluation of health promotion which should be a core research activity may be based on the three main forms of evidence/knowledge associated with health promotion [28]: instrumental (controlling social and physical environments), interactive (understanding of diseases/health issues; lived experiences; solidarity) and critical (reflection and action; raising consciousness regarding causes and means of overcoming them). These three evidences are anchored on the given scientific/philosophical traditions, viz. instrumental (positivism, quantitative, experimental, scientific knowledge), interactive (constructivist, naturalistic, ethnographic/qualitative knowledge) and critical (materialist, structural and feminist theory).
There is also an overwhelming need for health promotion research to be aware of the difference between health promotion outcomes and health outcomes. Health outcomes crudely imply the consequences or benefits of healthcare delivery (e.g., reduction of mortality rate) related to a disease (which may be the case in spite of an increment in number of those affected by the disease). But health promotion outcomes signify the form of control and attitudinal re-orientation groups and individuals adopt in facing a given disease which may impact on the number of people affected by the disease and improve attitudes and behaviour towards those affected by the disease. Health promotion outcomes can be seen directly through community members’ perception and interpretations of a given health issue which makes the achievement of control possible.
Health promotion research should utilize both quantitative and qualitative methods. In addition to complementing quantitative methods in health promotion research, qualitative research enables the researcher reach the heart of issues in engagement with community members. In Africa, where a good percentage of the population are still domiciled in the rural areas, qualitative approach offers the possibility of profound insights into the why and how of health behaviors which may not be possible or easily achieved with the quantitative or traditional biomedical approaches. As a result, “the increasing popularity of qualitative methods is as a result of perceived failure of traditional methods to provide insights into the determinants – both structural and personal – of whether people pursue or do not pursue health-promoting actions” [25], p. 359.
It is important to recognize that in spite of apparent good intentions, health promotion can actually generate negative or counterproductive effects when not well managed. Thus, “negative outcomes occur where professionally paternalistic and disempowering health policy decisions force health-related outcomes that are irrelevant to sustained community development and are not based on or resourced according to the social reality of the community” [11], p. 315. The above sentiments caution one against embarking on health promotion activities and initiatives that are not anchored on the health realities of the community concerned. Often, overzealous health professionals unintentionally betray the health priorities of communities by assuming knowledge of all there is to know about the health situations and needs of the people.
Perhaps a critical shortfall of some health promotion activities and processes is the adoption of what can be termed the pathogenic paradigm which over-relies on risk instead of emphasizing protective mechanisms. This essentially entails a focus on the failure of communities and individuals to avoid disease or their apparent susceptibility to diseases instead of seeking to unleash their potential and capacity to engender and sustain good health and development. It is an approach that relies too much on health practitioners and experts and hardly gives voice to the people and their own knowledge cum realities.
Generally health promotion in Africa suffers from some of the debilitating challenges which confront the practice of health promotion broadly in many countries in the continent. These challenges, among others, include:
Poor definition and rudimentary elaboration of expected health outcomes
Ambiguous elaboration of factors and conditions to be targeted in health promotions
Ambiguity of health promotion policies and guidelines
Lack of capacity (or inadequate capacity) to develop, implement and evaluate health promotion programmes
A general context of inadequate investment in health promotion
Underdeveloped sectoral collaboration
Low political will and commitment to health promotion programmes as well as institutional corruption and resource mismanagement
The above challenges have implications for research in health promotions in the continent. There is no gainsaying the need for health promotion to be evidence based because essentially it is the only way to make it responsive to the health needs and interests of the people.
Health promotion combines varied but complementary indicators like legislation, health finance including fiscal measures and taxation, gender inclusiveness, mapping of priorities and organizational change. In spite of their differences, these issues are in reality intertwined or systematically connected in the sense that, for the public health system to function well and optimally, there should be a synergy between these indicators. Briefly:
This revolves around having the political will to make and drive through policies and laws that improve and sustain healthcare delivery. It also involves public health sector governance and leadership which aim at ensuring that only competent and qualified people lead the sector and that activities are governed by a democratic and free process which place emphasis on human rights, dignity and self-worth of all stakeholders.
Without doubt efficient health promotion and by implication the entire health delivery system cannot function without finance. In fact, the extent and impact of health promotion depend to a significant extent on the availability of funds. The problem of finance is especially critical in developing nations in Africa where political corruption and competing needs whittle down whatever gets to health from the yearly appropriation of government. However, there is a need to understand that a lot needs to be done in terms of the fiscal policies in these nations in order to achieve the desire for good health and improved life expectancy. In other words, the process of fiscal policymaking and budgetary allocation should prioritize health promotion and health delivery in these countries.
There is no gainsaying the fact that the health system as a whole is dynamic especially so in Africa where apart from battling known ailments new ones (or novel presentation of the old ailments) spring up now and then. The above entails that the health system calls for dynamic organizational setting that is robust enough to deal with changes while making improvements in the system. There is apparently no denying the fact that health promotion as a critical component of health delivery would benefit from organizational change. This is particularly so in the face of the reality that health promotion in most of the continent is still below the expectation. This is not to deny that health promotion has worked well in specific instances like the HIV/AID scourge and maternal health. However, such grab and slash system which focuses on only one of such delimited issues in the system cannot be seen as either robust or effective in the long run.
There is an obvious need to ‘en-gender’ health promotion as a very critical issue in Africa. This would entail ensuring that those involved in health promotion ensure that in all key phases of health promotion (planning, implementation and evaluation) women and men should be equal partners and collaborators. Gender, in this case, while calling attention to the needs of women, should also ensure that the men are not left behind even in approaching health issues traditionally seen as the concerns of women. Typical example here is in the area of family planning or reproductive health which demands the active collaboration or participation of both men and women to achieve desired results.
For the WHO [24], the priority interventions in Africa in respect of health promotions include capacity building, development of plans, incorporation of health promotion components in non-health sectors and strengthening of priority programmes using health promotion interventions. These essentially mean pursuing health promotion through capacity building, action planning, advocacy and multisectoral orientation. They are also in tune with relating to the determinants of health promotion in the continent. These include socio-economic conditions and physical (environment), biological, and behavioral lifestyles which impact on health in Africa. Countries can be encouraged to map out their priorities taking into consideration such factors as disease and financial burdens, threats, intervention tools and agencies, acuity, management capabilities, persistent challenges, etc.
Generally, there is a need for stepping up health promotion research in Africa in the areas of family and reproductive health targeting such issues as VVF, antenatal care, diabetes, cardiovascular issues, new disease forms/resurgence of old diseases (including Ebola), etc. especially in terms of communicating with those who are marginal to the formal sector of the society or who are less privileged by virtue of education, economic opportunities or physical/mental challenges, etc. in both urban and rural contexts. Health promotion can profit from an acute awareness of the fact that what works in one socio-geographical setting may not work in another since no two societies are exactly the same. This would entail designing programmes that even where the general principles or goals remain the same embody recognition of the socio-geographical peculiarities of the society/community concerned.
Given the usual paucity of funds in the continent, it makes sense that to minimize cost and save time, there should be incorporation of both needs assessment and evaluation into ongoing health promotion activities. This approach offers a smart way of pursuing health promotion goals without elaborate budget.
In spite of country differences and specific structural challenges, there is a need to build a culture of sharing and documenting outcomes and evidences of health promotion between different countries and organizations. This is a step towards achieving the desirable goal of multinational coordination especially for infectious diseases and epidemics. Equally, African nations need to invest more in capacity building for media and theater practitioners in both private and public sectors on health promotion. There is no gainsaying the media’s crucial role in health information dissemination. Actually, health promotion is largely media driven and should be programmed as such.
In addition to media practitioners, there should be health programme or intervention specific to health promotion capacity building for different cadres of public sector workers. Such capacity building or training should be anchored on acute awareness of current research trends and best practices globally. There should also be increased attention to the need for specific health promotion for under-represented health issues and priority to non-communicable diseases should be targeted. It should also improve capacity on how to incorporate methods of targeting members of the society marginal or vulnerable within each country context.
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\\n\\nAs a gold Open Access publisher, an Open Access Publishing Fee is payable on acceptance following peer review of the manuscript. In return, we provide high quality publishing services and exclusive benefits for all contributors. IntechOpen is the trusted publishing partner of over 118,000 international scientists and researchers.
\n\nThe Open Access Publishing Fee (OAPF) is payable only after your full chapter, monograph or Compacts monograph is accepted for publication.
\n\nOAPF Publishing Options
\n\n*These prices do not include Value-Added Tax (VAT). Residents of European Union countries need to add VAT based on the specific rate in their country of residence. Institutions and companies registered as VAT taxable entities in their own EU member state will not pay VAT as long as provision of the VAT registration number is made during the application process. This is made possible by the EU reverse charge method.
\n\nServices included are:
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\n\nWhat isn't covered by the Open Access Publishing Fee?
\n\nIf your manuscript:
\n\nYour Author Service Manager will inform you of any items not covered by the OAPF and provide exact information regarding those additional costs before proceeding.
\n\nOpen Access Funding
\n\nTo explore funding opportunities and learn more about how you can finance your IntechOpen publication, go to our Open Access Funding page. IntechOpen offers expert assistance to all of its Authors. We can support you in approaching funding bodies and institutions in relation to publishing fees by providing information about compliance with the Open Access policies of your funder or institution. We can also assist with communicating the benefits of Open Access in order to support and strengthen your funding request and provide personal guidance through your application process. You can contact us at oapf@intechopen.com for further details or assistance.
\n\nFor Authors who are still unable to obtain funding from their institutions or research funding bodies for individual projects, IntechOpen does offer the possibility of applying for a Waiver to offset some or all processing feed. Details regarding our Waiver Policy can be found here.
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\n\nChoosing to publish with IntechOpen ensures the following benefits:
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