•The influence of pyrolysis temperature and solid residence time on products and energy distribution were investigated.•The results showed that carbon monoxide is the main component in bio-gas.•The oil products showed that phenols hydrocarbons were the major components.•The maximum of energy profit rate is 6.49% obtained at the temperature of 900 °C with the solid residence time of 6 min.In this work, the continuous pyrolysis of pine sawdust is performed with a screw reactor to investigate the influence of pyrolysis temperature and solid residence time on products and energy distribution. Gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer (GC/MS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were used to confirm the identities of bio-oil. The combustion kinetics of bio-char had analyzed by thermo-gravimetric (TG). The results of gas chromatograph showed that carbon monoxide is the main component in produced gas, and the maximum gas yield of 54.5% was obtained at the temperature of 900 °C. Compositional analysis of the oil products showed that phenols were the major components, and its proportion increased at higher temperatures and longer solid residence times. The activation energy of bio-char combustion is 461.10 kJ mol−1 and 108.45 kJ mol−1 in the ranges of 290–314 °C and 314–518 °C, respectively. The maximum of energy profit rate is 6.49% obtained at the temperature of 900 °C with the solid residence time of 6 min.

•NiO/ceramic foam catalyst was employed for tar reforming.•The maximum hydrogen yield reached 105.28 g H2/kg tar at 700 °C and S/C = 1.•High ratio of S/C was in favor of hydrogen yield, and the increase of ER caused the hydrogen yields decrease.•The catalyst was activated in situ and the carbon deposition can be removed by regular in situ oxidization.In this study, the catalytic steam reforming of biomass tar for hydrogen production was carried out in a fixed-bed reactor with NiO/ceramic foam catalyst. The ceramic foam used as catalyst carrier was a three-dimensional porous material with high porosity and high specific heat capacity. The effects of reaction temperature, steam to carbon ratio (S/C) and equivalence ratio (ER) on gas quality parameters were investigated. And the fresh, coked and regenerated NiO/ceramic foam catalysts were characterized by SEM and XRD analyses. It was found that, when the temperatures varied from 500 to 900 °C and S/C ratio from 0 to 4, H2 yields were in the range of 28.29–105.28 g H2/kg tar. With increasing ERs, the concentrations of H2 decreased from 63.13 to 18.96%. SEM and XRD analyses showed that the catalyst was in situ activated by reducing nickel oxide to the active nickel metal during a reducing atmosphere in steam reforming process.

•Pyrolysis behavior of dried sewage sludge was investigated by thermogravimetric analysis and a tubular pyrolyzer.•The activation energies for two temperature ranges of 186–296 °C and 296–518 °C were 82.28 kJ mol−1 and 48.34 kJ mol−1, respectively.•The main gaseous products identified by the FTIR were CH4, CO2, CO and organic volatile compounds such as aldehydes, acids, alcohols and phenols.•The maximum oil yield of 46.14% was obtained at the temperature of 550 °C under the fast pyrolysis condition.Pyrolysis behavior of dried sewage sludge was studied by thermogravimetric–Fourier transforms infrared analysis (TG–FTIR) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) to investigate thermal decomposition and kinetics analysis. A tubular pyrolyzer was used to explore the production distribution of dried sewage sludge pyrolysis under different runs. The results showed that two weight loss peaks were presented in pyrolysis reaction in the ranges of 186–296 °C and 296–518 °C, and the activation energy of each stage was 82.284 kJ mol−1 and 48.342 kJ mol−1, respectively. The main gases identified by FTIR analysis were CH4, CO2, CO and organic volatile compounds such as aldehydes, acids, alcohols and phenols. Under fast pyrolysis of dried sewage sludge, the maximum tar yield obtained was 46.14% at the temperature of 550 °C. The concentrations of all gases increased steadily with increasing pyrolysis temperature from 450 °C to 650 °C except for CO2.

In the present study, an updraft biomass gasifier combined with a porous ceramic reformer was used to carry out the gasification reforming experiments for hydrogen-rich gas production. The effects of reactor temperature, equivalence ratio (ER) and gasifying agents on the gas yields were investigated. The results indicated that the ratio of CO/CO2 presented a clear increasing trend, and hydrogen yield increased from 33.17 to 44.26 g H2/kg biomass with the reactor temperature increase, The H2 concentration of production gas in oxygen gasification (oxygen as gasifying agent) was much higher than that in air gasification (air as gasifying agent). The ER values at maximum gas yield were found at ER = 0.22 in air gasification and at 0.05 in oxygen gasification, respectively. The hydrogen yields in air and oxygen gasification varied in the range of 25.05–29.58 and 25.68–51.29 g H2/kg biomass, respectively. Isothermal standard reduced time plots (RTPs) were employed to determine the best-fit kinetic model of large weight biomass air gasification isothermal thermogravimetric, and the relevant kinetic parameters corresponding to the air gasification were evaluated by isothermal kinetic analysis.Highlights► An updraft biomass gasifier with a porous ceramic reformer for hydrogen-rich gas production was studied. ► The ER values of maximum gas yield were 0.22 and 0.05 in air and oxygen gasification. ► The best-fit kinetic models of air gasification were determined by Reduced time plots (RTPs). ► The activation energy is 34.295 kJ mol−1 and 23.797 kJ mol−1 in the 5 g and 10 g samples thermogravity, respectively.