Biomass tar cracking and syngas production using rice husk char-supported nickel catalysts coupled with microwave heating

In the present work, biomass pyrolysis tar cracking and reforming for high quality syngas production using a rice husk char (RHC)-supported nickel catalyst (Ni/RHC) coupled with microwave heating was investigated. The Ni/RHC catalyst exhibited a high catalytic performance on tar removal and contributed well to the production of CO and H 2 . The conversion efficiency could reach up to 97.3%, and the CO and H 2 yields were 274.0 ml g −1 and 248.9 ml g −1 , respectively, at 700 °C, under microwave conditions, when the nickel loading amount was 10.42 wt% of the support. The tar conversion efficiencies and syngas yields significantly increased as the cracking temperatures increased from 500 °C to 700 °C and the nickel loading amount increased from 0 to 10.42 wt%. The Ni/RHC catalysts became more effective for tar removal and the production of syngas increased under microwave conditions compared to the results obtained under conventional conditions. We explored the effect of Ni/RHC catalyst on tar removal and syngas production under microwave conditions.