Autothermal catalytic reforming of pine wood derived fast pyrolysis-oil in a 1.5 kg/h pilot installation: Aspects of adiabatic operation

An experimental setup was built to reform 1.5 kg/h pine wood derived fast pyrolysis oil over supported metal (Ni and Pt/Rh/Pd) monolithic catalysts. To ensure that the experimental data generated from the laboratory setup can be extrapolated to industrial scale operation, a prerequisite is to create adiabatic conditions. Preceding to the publication of any details of the various measurements, this study reports on a method developed to compensate for heat losses and simulate adiabatic behavior. A thermodynamic equilibrium model is developed to determine the influence of the process variables on gas yield, composition and temperature. The temperatures measured in the experimental work compare quite good to the model results when the experimentally observed carbon-to-gas ratio and the remaining minimal heat loss are included in the model.