Subcritical and supercritical water in-situ gasification of metal (Ni/Ru/Fe) impregnated banana pseudo-stem for hydrogen rich fuel gas mixture

Integration of metals into the biomass matrix has been found to be an alternate strategy to the conventional catalysts that are prone to deactivation. Different metals like Ni (0.98 mol/ kg), Ru (0.76 mol/kg) and Fe (0.83 mol/kg) are separately impregnated into banana pseudostem to analyse their impact on H-2 yields. In-situ gasification of metal impregnated biomass was conducted over sub/- and supercritical water range of 300-600 degrees C, with 1:10 biomass-to-water ratio for 60 min. X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of char generated at 300 and 600 degrees C confirm the transition of nanometals from M(n+) to MP(0) during in-situ gasification. The reduction of metal oxides to nanometals enhanced the gas yields by providing more active sites. Maximum H-2 yields of 11.1, 8.83 and 8.04 mmol/g was achieved for metal (Ni/Ru/Fe) impregnated banana pseudo-stem with the carbon gasification efficiency approaching 73.64, 64.21 and 62.65% respectively at 600 degrees C. (C) 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.