A highly stable leaf-like Ni/Ca3AlO catalyst for hydrogen production from biomass gasification

The stability of the nickel-based catalyst is a crucial factor in the catalytic gasification of biomass. In this study, a series of Ni/CaxAlO catalysts, synthesized by the hydrothermal method, were applied to the catalytic gasification of pear wood for hydrogen production. The results demonstrated that the Ni/Ca3AlO catalyst exhibited excellent catalytic transformation performance and favorable cycle stability. The hydrogen yield and concentration were 30.08 mmol/gbiomass and 60.61 vol% for the reduced Ni/Ca3AlO catalyst and were still 16.75 mmol/gbiomass and 45.31 vol% after 10 cycles. Material characterization analysis revealed that the leaf-like morphology and the strong metal support interaction enable Ni/Ca3AlO catalyst to display a robust anti-sintering performance, resulting in the average particle size of Ni particles increased by only 3.24 nm after 10 cycles. Moreover, reduced encapsulating coke precursors caused by Ca doping together with the oxidizing capacity of Ca12Al14O33 to filamentous coke qualify Ni/Ca3AlO catalyst to show a powerful resistance to coke deposits. Compared with Ni/AlO catalyst, the coke accumulation of Ni/Ca3AlO catalyst was reduced by 65.02 % after 10 cycles. The results provide a basis for the design of a new nickel-based catalyst and its application in biomass catalytic gasification for hydrogen production.