Syngas production by catalytic steam gasification of citrus residues

This study investigate the feasibility to use citrus peel residues to produce hydrogen rich syngas by steam gasification process. Thermodynamic evaluations were performed by simulation modelling thus preliminary experiment was carried out at 1023 K and S/B ratio 1.5 wt/wt. The effect of different types of catalytic materials (minerals and synthetic catalyst) on steam gasification process was investigated in terms of efficiency, hydrogen formation tendency and outlet stream composition. It is found that concentrations of H2 and CO of 58.80 mol% and 25.34 mol% can be produced by citrus peels conversion. Moreover, both carbon and hydrogen gasification efficiencies can be enhanced using dolomite, MgO and Ni/Al2O3 in the reactor (from 43.7% to 54.9% and from 34.3% to 54.1% for CGE and H2GE, respectively). Dolomite resulted the best catalyst for citrus peels steam gasification under the examined operative condition with CGE and H2GE rates of 54.9% and 54.1%, respectively. Ni catalyst resulted to be affected by carbon formation and sintering on time on stream.