Malaysia is currently the world’s largest producer and exporter
of palm oil. Besides producing palm oil, at present there is an
increasing interest concerning oil palm renewable energy, and one
of major attentions is the production of hydrogen from biomass by
catalytic routes.
There are various thermo-chemical conversion technologies
which can be applied for hydrogen production from biomass. Gasification
technology provides a competitive way to convert solid
biomass like oil palm waste to a uniform gas mixture namely
hydrogen, carbon monoxide, methane and carbon dioxide. Catalysts
are widely used for syngas cleaning and play an important role
in enhancing the production of hydrogen by gasification process.
Various catalytic systems have been studied to improve hydrogen
production and reduce tar content in syngas produced from
biomass. Calcined dolomite can be an effective catalyst for minimizing
tar in the product gas. Dolomite activity can be directly
related to the CaO content, Fe2O3 content, pore size and distribution.
A major problem with using dolomite is the deactivation due
to carbon deposition and it is a soft and fragile material; however,
dolomite is cheap and can be easily replaced.
A significant amount of work has been published on the area of
hot gas cleaning from biomass gasification using nickel catalysts.
Nickel-based supported catalysts are highly effective at the removal
of tar and adjustment of the gas composition to syngas quality.
The additional of nickel to dolomite and olivine could significantly
improve the activity towards tar conversion.
This paper presents a review which focuses on different types of thermo-chemical processes for conversion
of oil palm biomass to hydrogen rich gas. This paper offers a concise and up-to-date scenario of
the present status of oil palm industry in contributing towards sustainable and renewable energy.