Development of nickel‐activated catalytic filters for tar removal in H 2 S‐containing biomass gasification gas

The urea method was applied to deposit a nickel–calcium catalyst inside porous filter discs to develop a gas cleaning technique involving the combined removal of tars and particles from hot biomass gasification gas. Some catalytic filter discs were tested in typical filtration conditions for the decomposition of the model tar compound benzene in a simulated biomass gasification gas containing representative amounts of H 2 S. H 2 S‐deactivation studies showed a significant improvement in the sulfur resistance of the nickel catalyst on the filter discs by the addition of CaO to the catalyst formulation. The optimisation of the ratio between Ni and CaO and the effect of nickel content in the catalyst formulation on the catalytic performance were investigated. © 2003 Society of Chemical Industry