Biomass gasification for syngas production is one of key operating units in the biomass utilization process, however its overall efficiency and stability are normally limited by the presence of complex impurities including particulate matters (PMs) and tars. Herein, a highly integrated ceramic membrane-based reactor was developed for high temperature syngas cleaning to allow the efficient in situ removal of PMs and tars from bio-vapours generated by biomass gasification. In specific, silicon carbide (SiC) membrane could in situ separate the PMs from biomass volatiles, while structured Ni 15La 5/S1-SiC catalyst (nickel and lanthanum-laden silicalite-1 zeolite supported on SiC foam) could promote the catalytic reforming of tars. Compared to other control reactors (i.e., with either membrane or catalyst alone), the integrated reactor demonstrated synergistic intensification in producing clean syngas from biomass gasification, with PM and tar removal efficiencies up to ~97% and ~90%, respectively, and excellent stability in five-cycle evaluations at 800 °C.

Flow arrangement in a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma reactor is key to affect multi-component gas reactions (e.g., dry reforming of methane). Herein, a stainless-steel membrane distributor-type DBD reactor was developed to allow the change of gas flow arrangements freely to understand their effect on plasma-assisted CH4/CO2 conversion to syngas. Variation of gas flow arrangements in the DBD reactor could regulate the reaction performance. Also, inclusion of packing materials, especially ones with low packing density, in the DBD reactor could enhance the effect of gas flow arrangement compared to the plasma-alone DBD. Specially, the DBD reactor with CO2 feed in the quartz wool packed discharge zone and CH4 distributed via the membrane exhibited a good stability over 300 min on stream, with rather stable CO2/CH4 conversions of ~30%/50%, H2/CO selectivity of ~46%/55%, H2/CO molar ratio of 0.8–1.0, and energy efficiency of 0.25–0.35 mmol·kJ−1.