Biorefineries that synthesize fuels and chemicals from sustainable, renewable resources can employ syngas chemistry to create a slate of products. The gasification of cellulosic biomass to create this syngas is an active area of research. This syngas, however, may contain tars and other poisons that should be reformed and/or removed in order to protect downstream synthesis catalysts and to efficiently utilize the biomass carbon and hydrogen.

The current contribution uses simulated gasification vapors to examine the steam reforming activity, deactivation, and regeneration processes of catalysts in a bench scale, plug flow reactor. Bulk and surface catalyst characterization techniques are used to probe the principle catalyst features affecting reaction activity, selectivity, and stability differences amongst the samples, which mainly consist of Ni-based materials. These results will be discussed in the context of next generation catalyst design.