Synthesis and characterization of ni/zro2 and sn/zro2 catalysts for biomass gasification in supercritical water media

In this study, Ni/ZrO2 and Sn/ZrO2 catalysts were synthesized by co-precipitation method in order to be used for hydrogen production from glucose by supercritical water gasification. The effect of co-precipitation method steps were investigated on the Ni/ZrO2 catalysts surface area to obtain highest surface area. Suitable parameters were determined as NH4OH at a rate of 10 mL/min, pH of 10, 60 °C, 1 hour aging time, ethanol as a washing agent, stirring rate of 700 rpm, drying under microwave irradiation, calcination conditions of 1 (°C/min)/600 °C/2 hours, 600 °C/1 hour for reduction. Sn/ZrO2 was synthesised at the same conditions applying different calcination temperature and loading amount of SnO2. Suitable calcination temperature and loading ratio were determined as 600 oC and 15% of Sn/ZrO2, respectively. Catalysts were characterized by XRD, XRF, BET, TGA and SEM techniques. Activity of catalysts were tested in the gasification of glucose in supercritical water. The highest activity was achieved by using 20% NiZrO2 catalyst with 41.22% hydrogen content of gas product.