Experimental Validation of Earth Abundant Heterogeneous Catalysts Toward Sustainable Energy Conversion

Background: The clean energy sector needs hydrogen as its main energy carrier but biomass-based hydrogen production faces obstacles because tar forms which damages catalysts while decreasing system efficiency. The high catalytic activity of noble metal catalysts does not make them suitable for industrial operations because of their expensive price and their tendency to form coke deposits. Methods: Multiple heterogeneous catalysts, including Ni/Al₂O₃ and Ni/MgO and Febased and dolomite and alkali-promoted and noble metal catalysts, were tested experimentally in this research. The fixed-bed reactor served as the experimental setup for hydrogen production and tar cracking tests, which operated at elevated temperature levels. Gas chromatography was used to measure hydrogen production and H₂/CO ratio and tar removal efficiency and carbon deposition while conducting three separate experiments to prove their findings. Results: Noble metal catalysts the maximum hydrogen at 64.5 vol.%, and Ni/Al₂O₃ followed with a 61.8 vol.% hydrogen yield are produced. The tar removal process reached its peak efficiency with dolomite, which removed 93.8% of tar while achieving minimal carbon buildup. The alkali-promoted catalysts showed the ability to prevent coke development. Hydrogen production efficiency needed to be reduced when tar cracking performance reached its highest level for every catalyst system. Conclusion: This study shows that catalysts made from earth-abundant elements provide budget-friendly solutions that match noble metal performance in durability. Sustainable hydrogen production systems require combined or dual-catalyst approaches to attain their compulsory hydrogen yield and tar removal and preserve functioning stability for protracted periodsle.