Cracking of biomass tar was investigated over Ni/dolo
mite catalyst prepared by the incipientwetness method using modified dolo
mite as precursor. Modified dolo
mite was prepared by
mixingFe
2O
3 powders with natural dolo
mite powders to increase Fe
2O
3 content for higher activity oftar cracking. Four other catalysts (natural dolo
mite, modified dolo
mite, ICI-46-1, and Z409) weretested and compared with Ni/dolo
mite catalyst. The effects of temperature, steam-to-carbon, andspace velocity on tar conversion were explored. Ni/dolo
mite is shown to be very active and usefulfor tar removal. A 97% tar removal is easily obtained at catalyst temperature of 750
![](/images/entities/deg.gif)
C andspace velocities of 12 000 h
-1. The
minimum
S/
C ratio for Ni/dolo
mite was 2.5 at a catalysttemperature of 750
![](/images/entities/deg.gif)
C to prevent the formation of the coke on the catalyst. No obvious deactivationof catalyst was observed in 60 h on-stream tests. Compared with the Ni-based catalysts (ICI-46-1, Z409), Ni/dolo
mite catalyst is cheap and has also excellent activity and anticoke ability.