Producer gas cleaning in a dual fluidized bed reformer—a comparative study of performance with ilmenite and a manganese oxide as catalysts

Secondary catalytic gas conditioning is one strategy to eliminate tars formed in a producer gas during biomass gasification. However, most catalysts tend to lose their tar reforming activity after a short period of operation due to carbon formation. A novel technique for catalytic gas cleaning based on two interconnected fluidized beds has been investigated; this technique can be applied to all types of gasifiers. The idea is to reform the tar components into useful molecules—even at high tar contents—by means of a circulating catalyst. More precisely, the producer gas is cleaned with catalyst in one of the reactors, referred to as the fuel reactor, while the catalyst is continuously regenerated in another reactor, the air reactor (AR). The system described here is coupled with the Chalmers 2–4 MW_th biomass gasifier while the AR is fed with nitrogen-diluted air. The effect of different catalysts on both the tar content and the gas composition was investigated. Some of the tested materials do not only reform tars, they also influence the H₂/CO ratio in a beneficial manner; in particular, ratios closer to 3 in the reformed gas are favorable if subsequent methanation is implemented. In this paper, comparative results based on testing with manganese- and iron-based catalysts are presented. The former is a manufactured catalyst while the latter is a natural ore. Results suggest that both show satisfying ability for regeneration from carbon deposits. Higher temperature enhances tar decomposition during the experiment with both catalysts. Moreover, the iron-based catalyst enhances the water–gas shift activity, which in turn impacts the total amount of produced gas. On the other hand, the manganese-based catalyst seems to display a higher propensity for tar conversion.