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Steam reforming of bagasse to hydrogen and

synthesis gas using ruthenium promoted NiFe/-Al2O3nano-catalysts
Article in International Journal of Hydrogen Energy May 2016
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2016.05.261

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Steam reforming of bagasse to hydrogen and

synthesis gas using ruthenium promoted
NieFe/geAl2O3nano-catalysts
Sajadeh Jafarian a, Ahmad Tavasoli a, Ali Karimi b,*, Omid Norouzi a
a
b

School of Chemistry, College of Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Gas Division, Research Institute of Petroleum Industry, Tehran, Iran

article info

abstract

Article history:

Bagasse conversion to H2, CO and light gaseous hydrocarbons was performed in a batch

Received 23 November 2015

micro reactor under 850
C and atmospheric pressure in the presence of unpromoted and

Received in revised form

ruthenium promoted NieFe/geAl2O3 nano catalysts. The nano catalysts were prepared

29 May 2016

with 12 wt.% Ni, 6 wt.% Fe and 0.5 to 2 wt.% Ru loadings via microemulsion technique. The

Accepted 29 May 2016

catalysts were extensively characterized using ICP, XRD, TPR, BET, TEM and H2 chemi-

Available online xxx

sorption techniques. XRD patterns confirmed formation of NieFe alloys on the catalysts.
Ruthenium increased dispersion of active metal clusters by 44.6% and consequently

Keywords:

improved the reducibility of the catalysts. The addition of 1 wt.% Ru increased the total gas

Biomass gasification

yield, the yield of hydrogen, the yield of carbon monoxide and the carbon conversion ef-

Steam reforming

ficiency by 34.2%, 35.9%, 33.54% and 44% respectively.

Hydrogen

2016 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Nickel
Iron
Ruthenium

Introduction
Nowadays, the most important challenges associated with the
emission of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere and shortage
of fossil fuels has developed research on the use of biomass
and agricultural waste in energy conversion processes [1e3].
The catalytic gasification of biomass has been studied
worldwide as a way to produce hydrogen recognized as a
potential energy carrier from renewable sources at various
temperatures and pressures [4]. Different biomass gasification
methods such as pyrolysis, supercritical water gasification
and gasification via biomass steam reforming have been

investigated to produce hydrogen rich gas. Because of higher

hydrogen yield and lower tar and char producing, biomass
steam reforming compared to pyrolysis and milder reaction
conditions compared to supercritical water gasification, can
be a good candidate for hydrogen production [5,6]. Recently,
research and development in applications of electricity generation has been focused on utilization of hydrogen obtained
from biomass [7]. Hua Li et al. investigated the microwaveassisted pyrolysis of rice straw. The highest Hydrogen yield
(44.94 wt.%) was obtained at the power of 2.5 kW [8]. Nimit
Nipattummakul et al. investigated sewage sludge pyrolysis.
The maximum Hydrogen yield was found at the temperature
of 1000
C [9].

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 98 21 48252395; fax: 98 21 44739716.

E-mail addresses: karimial@ripi.ir, tavassolia@khayam.ut.ac.ir (A. Karimi).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2016.05.261
0360-3199/ 2016 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article in press as: Jafarian S, et al., Steam reforming of bagasse to hydrogen and synthesis gas using ruthenium promoted NieFe/geAl2O3nano-catalysts, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2016.05.261

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The catalytic steam reforming of biomass has been investigated with various supported noble and base metal catalysts.
Both noble metals (e.g., Pd, Pt, Ru, Rh) and base metals (e.g.,
Co, Ni, Cu) have been investigated with various supports for
steam reforming of biomass [10e12].
In particular, Ni catalysts have been widely studied for the
steam reforming of tar because of their low cost and high
activity for CeC, OeH and CeH bonds cleavage in the hydrocarbons to be reformed. Ni catalysts also accelerate the water
gas shift reaction in order to remove adsorbed CO from the
surface [13,14]. Also, iron based and promoted catalysts are
attractive for researchers in gasification fields of study. The Fe
modified cobalt catalysts have been applied widely for the
steam reforming of oxygenates. Because of high oxygen affinity, Fe can increase the catalyst coverage with oxygen
atoms during the steam reforming reactions. This property
makes iron a good choice for catalytic reforming of oxygenates [15e19]. However, these catalysts suffer rapid deactivation as a result of coke deposition, sintering of metal particles
and carbon fouling at high temperatures. Essential factors
that describe the high catalytic activity of the nickel based
catalysts are small crystallite size and high degree of dispersion of nickel particles on the supports [20,21]. A proven
method to improve the activity and coke resistance of supported nickel catalysts is to dope it with promoter metals
especially noble ones. Effect of noble metals including Pt, Pd,
Rh and Ru, on the performance of Ni/CeO2eAl2O3 catalyst in
cedar wood biomass steam gasification have been examined.
Among these noble metals, the addition of Pt was most
effective even when the loading amount of added Pt was as
small as 0.01 wt.%. Ruthenium recently has been used as
active metal and promoter of catalysts in several types of
gasification especially supercritical water gasification. This
metal showed significant performance in gasification [22,23].
This interesting effect has been related to its specific electron
arrangement. So, it seems that Ru also can be a very beneficial
promoter on a catalyst for bagasse steam reforming.
In this work, bagasse was used as biomass feedstock for
catalytic gasification via steam reforming in presence of
ruthenium promoted NieFe/geAl2O3 catalysts. Catalysts with
different ruthenium contents were prepared by microemulsion method. The promotional effects of ruthenium on
the catalytic activity of NieFe/geAl2O3 catalyst in steam
reforming of bagasse are widely investigated.

Experimental
Materials and reagents
The bagasse biomass as feedstock was supplied from HaftTappe Industries. The material was washed, grinded and
sieved to achieve particle sizes up to 1 mm. Precursors,
Ni(NO3)2.6H2O, Fe(NO3)3.9H2O, n-Butanol, Tetrahydrofuran
(THF) and n-Hexane were purchased from Merck company.
Ruthenium
nitrosyl
nitrate
solution,
Ru(NO)(NO3)3,
with1.5wt.% ruthenium and a density of 1.07 g/ml was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich Company. Hydrazine hydrate and
Triton X-100 were purchased from Chem-Lab Company.
Conndea Vista Catalox g-alumina as support with 212.4 m2/g

specific surface area and Sodium oxide (Na2O) <0.05 (ppm),

Silica (SiO2) <0.9 (ppm), Sulfate (SO4) <1.5 (ppm) impurities
was prepared and treated.

Preparation of the catalysts

The catalysts were prepared using reverse microemulsion
techniques with a mass fraction of 12%Ni, 6%Fe and mass
fractions of 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2%Ru on geAl2O3 as support. Table 1
presents the prepared catalysts. Prior to catalyst preparation,
geAl2O3 was treated with air calcination at 400
C for 4 h to
remove its pores water content and probable combustible
impurities. Furthermore, NieFeeRu nanoparticles were synthesized through reverse microemulsion using Triton X-100 as
nonionic surfactant, n-hexane as oil phase, and n-butanol as
co-surfactant. The loading weight percents metals (Ni, Fe and
Ru) were carefully adjusted with preparing appropriate
aqueous solutions of Ni(NO3)2$6H2O, Fe(NO3)3$9H2O and
Ru(NO)(NO3)3. Catalysts were synthesized with water to surfactant molar ratio of 0.16. After obtaining microemulsion
mixture on vigorous stirring, hydrazine hydrate was added in
excess to improve nanoparticle formation in cores of the micelles through metal oxides reduction. The certain amount of
geAl2O3 was added to the mixture and after that tetrahydrofurane as emulsion destabilizing agent with the rate of
0.1 ml/min were added to the mixture during 2 h. The mixture
was left in a static situation to mature and settle overnight
and then decanted. The sediment was recovered using vacuum filtration over ash less filtration paper and washed
several times with distilled water and ethanol. The catalysts
were dried at 120
C for 2 h and calcined under air flow at
400
C for 4 h for removing the traces of surfactant and
ammonia.

Catalyst characterization
The metal loadings of the calcined catalysts were verified by
an Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy
(ICP-AES) system.
Temperature programmed reduction (TPR) with H2 was
performed in the fixed bed flow reactor. The TPR profiles of
samples were recorded from room temperature to 850
C for
50 mg of catalysts under 30 ml/min flow of H2 and Ar mixture,
with H2/Ar molar ratio of %5. The heating rate was 10
C/min
and the temperature was maintained at 850
C for 30 min after
it reached 850
C. The consumption of H2 was monitored
continuously with TCD gas chromatograph equipped with
frozen acetone trap to remove the water from the effluent gas.
The amount of H2 consumption was estimated from the peak
area in the TPR profiles.

Table 1 e The prepared catalysts.

Catalyst name
Cat1
Cat2
Cat3
Cat4
Cat5

Catalyst formula
12%Ni- 6%Fe on geAl2O3
0.5%Ru-12%Ni- 6%Fe on geAl2O3
1%Ru- 12%Ni- 6%Fe on geAl2O3
1.5%Ru- 12%Ni- 6%Fe on geAl2O3
2%Ru- 12%Ni- 6%Fe on geAl2O3

Please cite this article in press as: Jafarian S, et al., Steam reforming of bagasse to hydrogen and synthesis gas using ruthenium promoted NieFe/geAl2O3nano-catalysts, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2016.05.261

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Particle size and morphology of the calcined catalysts were

studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Sample
specimens for TEM studies were treated by ultrasonic
dispersion of catalysts in ethanol. The suspensions were
dropped on to a carbon coated copper grid. TEM microscopy
were carried out using a Philips CM20 (100 kV) transmission
electron microscope equipped with a NARON energy dispersive spectrometer with a germanium detector.
The surface area, pore volume, and average pore radius of
the alumina support and all catalysts were measured by an
ASAP-2010 system from Micromeritics. The samples were
degassed at 200
C for 4 h under 50 mTorr vacuum and their
BET area, pore volume, and average pore radius were
determined.
XRD patterns of calcined catalysts were obtained with
Philips PW1840 X-ray diffractometer with mono chromatized
Cu/Ka radiation. The average crystallite sizes of metal particles in calcined catalysts were estimated using DebyeeScherer equation from the line broadening at half height of the
maximum intensity of their peaks.
The amount of chemisorbed hydrogen on the catalysts was
measured using the Micromeritics TPD-TPR 290 system. 0.25 g
of samples were reduced under hydrogen flow at 500
C for
12 h and then cooled to 100
C under hydrogen flow. Then the
flow of hydrogen was switched to argon which lasted about
30 min in order to remove the weakly adsorbed hydrogen.
Afterward, the temperature programmed desorption (TPD)
was carried out by increasing the temperature of the argon
flow exposed samples with a ramp rate of 10
C/min to 500
C.
The TPD profile was used to determine the metal dispersion
and average crystallite size. After the TPD of hydrogen, the
sample was reoxidized at 500
C by pulses of 10 mol percent of
oxygen in oxygen and helium gas mixture to determine the
extent of reduction.

Reaction setup
Fig. 1 shows the reaction setup. As shown, the reaction was
performed in a fixed bed reactor made of a quartz glass tube
with 800 mm long and 10 mm internal diameter. Quartz wool,
feed and catalyst bed was fixed in the center of the reactor.
The reactor was located inside a tubular furnace with 20 mm
ID and 200 mm OD with total heating length of 700 mm. The
furnace temperature was controlled using an electrical heater
and a PID temperature controller and measured using a K-type
thermocouple. Argon was used as inert carrier gas with
exactly 30 ml/min flow rate using mass flow controller. Water
was injected into the reactor using a syringe pump with
desired flow rate. Reaction time, temperature and water flow
rate were 30 min, 850
C and 0.6 ml/min, respectively. The
product leaving the reactor was condensed and separated into
liquid and gaseous fractions. The liquid fraction was collected
in a liquid trap of ice-salt bath and the gaseous fraction was
collected over a sodium chloride saturated brine solution in a
graduated column. The volume of collected gases was
measured from displacement of the solution in the column.
Before bagasse loading, the catalysts were reduced by
hydrogen with 30 ml/min flow rate at 450
C for 2 h. The
reactor was allowed to cool down at the end of each experiment. The quality and quantity of produced gaseous mixture

were analyzed using gas chromatography technique (Varian

3400 and Teyfgostar-Compact). The condensed tar in glass
condenser and char left inside the reactor were measured by
measuring the difference in weights of glass condenser and
reactor before and after the reaction. All experiments were
repeated twice under the same experimental conditions and
the data reported herein are averages of repetitive runs.

Result and discussion

CHNSO analysis
The CHNSO analysis was performed for mass fraction determination of C, N, H, S and O bagasse structure. The results are
reported in Table 2.

Catalysts characterization
The results of the chemical analysis (Ni, Fe and Ru) of the
calcined catalysts confirmed that the metal contents of the
catalysts were rather similar to the targeted metal contents as
shown in Table 3.
Catalysts reducibility in H2 atmosphere was determined by
TPR experiments. The TPR spectra of the calcined catalysts are
shown in Fig. 2. In the TPR spectra of Cat1eCat5 catalysts, the
low temperature peaks (570e660 K) are typically related to the
reduction of nickel oxides, weakly interacting with the support [24,25]. The second peaks (700e800 K) are assigned to the
reduction of small ferrous oxide species and nickel oxide in its
neighborhood [19]. The catalyst has been prepared by microemulsion of Ru, Ni and Fe on the Al2O3 as support. Due to the
small amount and well association of Ru with Ni and Fe, the
existing of RuOx cluster is not expected, as can be ascertained
by TPR spectra. It is more likely for the microemulsion catalyst
that Ru species are well associated with Ni, mostly forming
the RueNi clusters. The reducibility of Ni-oxides was
improved by forming RueNi clusters via microemulsion Ru
with Ni onto Al2O3 [26]. As shown in this figure, the addition of
Ru to the unpromoted NieFe/geAl2O3 catalyst shifts the low
temperature peak to the lower temperatures (the peak temperature decreases from 695 for Cat1 to 575 K for Cat5). The Ni
species reducibility was promoted by Ru addition due to
hydrogen spillover effect. These results also support that the
interaction between Ru and Ni species plays important roles
on the high activity in the gasification via steam reforming of
biomass which will be shown in the next sections. Also,
NiAl2O4 phase reduction peak becomes visible at 970 K for the
Cat4 and Cat5 catalysts. This phase reduction becomes difficult and causes decrease of Ni active surface metal particles. It
was suggested that, the small Ni metal clusters more strongly
interact with alumina [20e28]. The TPR peak temperatures
and the area under the peaks are shown in Table 4. The area
under the peaks can be attributed to reduction degree of
different catalysts. As shown, the addition of Ru increased the
TPR peak area and H2 consumption which can increase the
surface active metals available for steam reforming and other
gasification reactions.
XRD patterns of calcined Cat1eCat5 catalyst are shown in
Fig. 3. For all the catalysts the peaks at 2q values of 37.02 and

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Fig. 1 e Scheme of the experimental setup.

Table 2 e CHNSO analysis results for bagasse.

Element

Mass fraction (%)

N
C
H
S
O

0.69
58.1
6.45
0.19
34.57

Table 3 e The elemental analysis of calcined catalysts.

Catalysts

Cat1
Cat2
Cat3
Cat4
Cat5

Expected values
(mass fraction %)

ICP values (mass

fraction %)

Ni

Fe

Ru

Ni

Fe

Ru

12
12
12
12
12

6
6
6
6
6

e
0.5
1
1.5
2

11.8
11.8
11.8
11.7
11.7

5.9
5.9
5.9
5.8
5.9

e
0.5
1
1.4
1.9

66.7 are attributed to geAl2O3. The peak at 2q value of 43.7
is

assigned to tetragonal NieFe phase, which suggests the formation of NieFe alloy [5,16]. The peak at 2q values of 62.26 can
be attributed to NiAl2O4 phase [28]. For Cat3 and Cat4 catalysts
this peak is observed with more intensity. Broadening of the
peaks can be attributed to smaller crystallite size in the

Fig. 2 e TPR curves for all the catalysts.

synthesized catalysts. The metal particles calculated by
Scherer equation and reported in Table 5. As shown, the active
metal particle sizes decreased smoothly from 4.1 to 3.2 nm
when ruthenium content increased to 2 wt.%.

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which are in agreement with the results determined by XRD

and TEM tests.

Table 4 e TPR results for the calcined catalysts.

Catalyst

First TPR peak temperature (k)

Ni2 / Nio

TPR peaks area

695
631
616
586
575

18.5
19.1
20.8
21.0
21.7

Cat1
Cat2
Cat3
Cat4
Cat5

Gaseous products analysis

The effect of the different amounts of Ru promoter, on steam
reforming gasification yield of bagasse were investigated
under identical conditions (reactor temperature of 850
C, reaction time of 30 min, bagasse content of 1 g and water flow
rate of 6 ml/min).
Fig. 5 shows the gasification yields (mmol of gas/g of
bagasse) for the whole gaseous products, H2, CO, CO2, CH4 and
heavier hydrocarbons. It has been referred by different authors that the biomass gasification involves several sequential
reactions given below [26,29,30].

Reaction

Stoichiometry

Enthalpy
(kJ/mol)

Pyrolysis

C6H10O5 / 5CO 5H2 C (1)

C6H10O5 / 5CO CH4 3H2 (2)
C6H10O5 / 3CO CO2 2CH4 H2 (3)
C6H10O5 0.5O2 / 6CO 5H2 (4)
C6H10O5 O2 / 5CO 5H2 CO2 (5)
C6H10O5 2O2 / 3CO 5H2 5H2 (6)
C6H10O5 H2O / 6CO 6H2 (7)
C6H10O5 H2O / 4CO 8H2 2CO2
(8)
C6H10O5 H2O / 6CO2 12H2 (9)
CO H2O / CO2 H2 (10)
CO 3H2 4 CH4 H2O (11)

180
300
142
71
213
778
310
230

Partial
oxidation
Steam
reforming

Fig. 3 e : XRD patterns for Cat1eCat5 catalysts (* Al2O3,

NiO, C NiAl2O4).

Table 5 e Textural properties and XRD results of the

calcined catalysts.
Sample BET surface area
(m2/g)
Support
Cat1
Cat2
Cat3
Cat4
Cat5

212
190
188
186
184
183

Total pore
volume (ml/g)

XRD results
dp (nm)

0.52
0.47
0.46
0.44
0.42
0.41

e
4.1
4.0
3.8
3.7
3.2

Textural properties of Cat1eCat5 catalysts are reported in

Table 5. The results show that the BET surface area (SBET) of
the catalysts decreases smoothly by addition of Ru. Also, the
results indicate that increasing the amount of Ru decreased
the pore volume from 0.52 to 0.41 ml/g.
The TEM micrographs of Cat1, Cat3 and Cat5 catalysts and
the particle size distributions for these catalysts are shown in
Fig. 4. The dark spots on this figure show that the active metal
particles were distributed on the support surface. As
mentioned above, increasing the amount of Ru prevents
coagulation of active metal particles and as results decreases
the average metal particle sizes. These results are in agreement with the results determined by XRD tests.
The results of H2 chemisorption are given in Table 6. As
shown, increasing the Ru loading considerably increases the
percentage dispersion and decreases the average particle
sizes. Average particle diameter decreased from 3.8 to 3 nm,

Water-gas shift
Methanation

64
41
211

The overall chemical conversion can be represented by the

below simplified net reaction:
Biomass O2 or H2 O/CO; CO2 ; CH4 ; H2 ; H2 O
other CHs tar char ash

(12)

Moreover, carbon deposition is the important side reaction

in gasification of biomass because of the decomposition of
organics, CH4, and disproportion of CO (Eqs. (13)e(15)).
Oxidizing compounds such as steam can act as the favorable
factors for the elimination of carbon deposit (Eq. (16)).

CnHmOk / CxHyOz coke

(13)

CH4 / C 2H2

DHo 74.9 kJ/mol

(14)

2 CO 4 C CO2

DHo 172.4 kJ/mol

(15)

C H2O 4 CO H2

DHo 131.3 kJ/mol

(16)

Since bagasse composed of cellulose, hemicelluloses and

lignin, it can be expected that the above reactions also occur
for gasification of bagasse. But under the given conditions,
partial oxidation reactions (Eqs. (4)e(6)) due to lack of oxygen
occur rarely and steam reforming, water gas shift reaction and

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Fig. 4 e TEM images and particle size distributions for Cat1, Cat3 and Cat5 catalysts.

Table 6 e H2 chemisorption results for the calcined

catalysts.
Catalyst mmol H2 desorbed/g cat % Dispersion dp (nm)
Cat1
Cat2
Cat3
Cat4
Cat5

295
315
325
333
362

25.1
30.5
34.7
37.3
44.6

3.85
3.79
3.62
3.49
3

Fig. 5 e The product gasification yields for Cat1eCat5

catalyzed steam reforming of bagasse (T: 850
C, reaction
time: 30 min).
methanation reaction were the most important reactions in
these processes. The results in Fig. 5 indicate that, the final
product gas composition of the bagasse gasification process is
the result of these competing reactions.

As shown in Fig. 5, promotion of 12 wt.%Nie6 wt.% Fe/

geAl2O3 with 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2 wt.% Ruthenium increased the
total gas yield by 20.07%, 34.2%, 35.9% and37.3% respectively.
Although, the addition of 0.5 and 1 wt.% Ruthenium changed
the total gas yield significantly, increasing the Ruthenium
loading to 1.5 and 2 wt.% did not change the total gas yield,
considerably. Also, promotion of the catalyst with 0.5, 1, 1.5
and 2 wt.% Ruthenium increased the yield of hydrogen by 21,
35.9, 37.35and 39.1%, respectively. In addition, the yield of CO
increased by 22.4, 33.54, 35.1 and 37.8%. However, the production rate of CO2 increased slightly. There was also no significant change in production rate of light hydrocarbons.
Therefore, the main products of the reaction were hydrogen
and carbon dioxide.
Among these catalysts, the catalyst with 1 wt.% Ru(Cat3) is
considered to be optimum catalyst, because of no remarkable
changes in catalyst performance for higher loadings of
ruthenium. Enhancement of catalysts activity by addition of
Ru can be explained by results of TPR tests (Fig. 2 and Table 4).
The data on Fig. 2 and Table 4 showed that addition of
ruthenium shifted the reduction peaks to lower temperatures
and in turn increased the reduction peak areas and the
reducibility of the catalysts. Another explanation for the
enhancement of catalysts activity is increasing dispersion of
metal clusters (Ni and Fe) as shown in Table 6. Increasing
dispersion increases the available sites for reaction and
catalyst gasifying performance.
The results of carbon conversion efficiency (hc) are shown in
Fig. 6. As shown, hc increased to maximum value of 44% for the
catalyst with 1 wt.%Ru. As shown, increasing the Ru loading to
1.5 and 2 wt.%, did not change the carbon conversion efficiency,
significantly. This can be due to the formation of nickel aluminate phase on these catalysts as confirmed by XRD patterns
which can reward the promotional effects of Ru to some extent.

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i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 6 ) 1 e8

size and higher dispersion and reducibility improvement of the

catalysts. Also, the results proved that Ru improved the steam
reforming of hydrocarbons and biomass tar.

references

Fig. 6 e Comparing the carbon conversion efficiency for

Cat1eCat5 catalyzed steam reforming of bagasse.

Fig. 7 e Comparing of LHV amounts for Cat1eCat5 catalyzed

steam reforming of bagasse.

Fig. 7 shows the LHV values calculated using the gasification data. The results show that LHV increased by factor of
0.35 with addition of 1 wt.%Ru due to increasing %CO and %H2
contents in the produced gas.

Statistical analysis
The reported data are the averages of several observations for
each experiment in order to make results more statistically
confident. Also, the accuracy of data was studied through ANOVA
(analysis of variance). Statistical level was 5% with p < 0.05.

Conclusion
A series of supported NieFe catalysts promoted with different Ru
contents were synthesized and characterized. Their performances for gasification via steam reforming of bagasse were
investigated. It was found that addition of 1 wt.% Ru to the NieFe
catalysts, significantly increases the total gas and H2 production
yields but addition of Ru more than 1 wt.%, doesn't have
considerable effects. This can be attributed to smaller particle

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Please cite this article in press as: Jafarian S, et al., Steam reforming of bagasse to hydrogen and synthesis gas using ruthenium promoted NieFe/geAl2O3nano-catalysts, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2016.05.261