Hydrogen production via supercritical water gasification of bagasse using Ni-Cu/γ-Al2O3 nano-catalysts

Biomass gasification in supercritical water media is a promising method for the production of hydrogen. In this research, Cu-promoted Ni/γ-Al2O3 nano-catalysts were prepared with 2.5-30 wt% Ni and 0.6-7.5 wt% Cu loadings via the microemulsion method. Nano-catalysts were characterized by inductively coupled plasma (ICP), Brunauer Emmett Teller (BET) technique, X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), H2 chemisorption and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) technique, as well as Carbon-Hydrogen-Nitrogen-Sulfur (CHNS) analysis was carried out for elemental analysis of bagasse. Nano-catalysts were assessed in a batch micro-reactor under 400°C and 240 bar. The microemulsion method decreased the catalyst average particle size and increased the percentage dispersion and reduction of the catalysts. The total gas yield increased with an increase in Ni and Cu loadings up to 20 wt% Ni and 5 wt% Cu and then started to decrease. Using the microemulsion technique for the preparation of Ni-Cu/γ-Al2O3 nano-catalyst, increased the hydrogen yield to 11.76 (mmol of H2/g of bagasse), CO yield to 2.67 (mmol of CO/g of bagasse) and light gaseous hydrocarbons to 0.6 (mmol of light gaseous hydrocarbons/g of bagasse). Promotion of Ni/γ-Al2O3 with copper increased the mole fraction of hydrogen in the final gasification products to 58.1 mol%.