Residual steam/CH4 reforming strategy over pinewood-derived 10Ni-xNb2O5-yCaO/Al2O3 for in situ desulfurization from industrial raw syngas

[Display omitted] •A novel strategy of residual steam/CH4 reforming for in situ desulfurization from industrial raw syngas.•Pinewood-derived well-ordered straight channels enhance the diffusion of gas components.•Synergistic effect of Nb and Ca improves high dispersion of Ni0 nanoparticles and sintering resistance ability.•10Ni-1Nb2O5-1CaO/Al2O3-I has high catalytic activity and stability. A novel strategy of residual steam/CH4 reforming (SMR) for in situ desulfurization and utilization of waste heat in industrial coal gasification crude syngas was first proposed in order to resolve the problems of sewage effluent and energy loss as well as hot coal gas desulfurization. In the meantime, a series of pinewood-derived 10Ni-xNb2O5-yCaO/Al2O3 catalysts were prepared for the first time and evaluated under the conditions of simulating industrial coal gasification crude syngas for residual SMR reaction. The highest methane conversion (93.4%) and long-term stability of 89.8% at time on stream of 88 h without decline over 10Ni-1Nb2O5-1CaO/Al2O3 are very close to the result (96.11%) by thermodynamic equilibrium calculation, demonstrating that pinewood-derived an ordered straight channel structure improves the behavior of gas diffusion and remain intact in SMR reaction at 850 °C. Meanwhile, the efficiency of hot coal gas desulfurization after removal of residual steam enhances 303.1% (from 62 mg/g to 249.9 mg/g). Besides, XRD, UV–vis and TG results prove that the doping of appropriate amount of Nb and Ca upgrade high dispersion of nickel nanoparticles and the ability of coke/sintering resistance. The studies provided a new strategy for the removal of residual H2O in really industrial coal gasification crude syngas.