BRISK2 provided the opportunity to visit the facilities in VTT Research Centre in Espoo, Finland, to conduct experiments using a reactor with online gas analysis. This reactor is able to provide information on the performance of catalysts for tar reforming. The purpose of my visit was to understand the potential of catalysts derived from char obtained from gasification pyrolysis from an industrial plant located in the Republic of Ireland, and the facilities available in VTT were adequate to suit my needs.
The laboratory where I worked had pressurized fixed bed plug flow reactors and atmospheric plug flow reactors connected to gas analysers and gas chromatographs. The reactor consisted on a drop tube furnace with differentially heated areas connected to a series of pipes to produce the necessary inlet composition. Information from the reactor was given every half an hour, thus this made possible to observe the behaviour of the reactor across time. The staff working in VTT was highly capable and willing to share knowledge and information making them one of the highlights of my BRISK2 experience.
A number of experiments involving different conditions (temperatures, residence times, catalyst types) were conducted. I was able to obtain some kinetic information which will form part of my PhD thesis. Further from this, I expect to produce at least one publication and compliment a second one from the obtained results.
Additionally, during my visit I was able to meet some experts in the field and look forward to meeting them again, sharing some ideas and maybe producing some collaboration work in the future.
Overall, BRISK2 travelling was a wonderful experience that I would recommend. The only recommendation to improve the experience I can think of is providing more detailed information of the rigs, as since the visits are short, experiments need to be very carefully planned in order to get the most of them and avoid needlessly wasting time getting familiar with the setup.
Figure 1:
Visitor and the pressurized fixed bed plug flow reactor.
Figure 2:
Setup of the pressurized plug flow reactor, tar feeding units and sampling units.
Figure 3:
Flowchart summarizing the pre-treatment of the catalyst.
Figure 4:
Picture of the particles inside the packed bed before the tar reforming experiments
Figure 5:
Picture of the particles inside the packed bed after the tar reforming experiments
Figure 6:
Picture of the packed-bed reactor used for the catalytic reforming experiments.
