Hot Gas Removal of Tars, Ammonia, and Hydrogen Sulfide from Biomass Gasification Gas

Abstract

Gasification of biomass is a promising source of fuels and other chemical products. However, the removal of tars, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and other byproducts from the raw gas is required. The gas clean‐up technology that offers more advantages is hot catalytic gas conditioning downstream of the gasifier reactor. Here, we review the applications of basic, acidic, metallic, and redox catalysts for the removal of such by-products and research strategies to prevent coke accumulation on the catalytic surface, to increase the resistance to sulfur poisoning, and to bring the by‐product removal reactions to temperatures below 600°C. Keywords: Biomass gasificationHot gas cleaningCatalytic tar removal Acknowledgments The authors gratefully acknowledge research funding provided by the U.S. Department of Energy grant number DE‐PS36‐04GO94002. One of us, W.T., acknowledges a leave of absence from Universidad del Valle, Colombia.