Orange peel oxidative gasification on Ni catalysts promoted with CaO, CeO₂ or K₂O

Orange peel can be considered as an attractive raw material to be gasified for hydrogen or syngas production. In this work, the catalytic evaluation of several silica-supported nickel catalysts in the oxidative degradation of waste orange peel is reported. It was found that the catalytic gasification with the K₂O-Ni/silica catalyst produces more hydrogen than the non-catalytic route at 600 °C. Surprisingly, a significant amount of ethene was obtained with the CeO₂-Ni/silica catalyst, which was explained in terms of an oxidative dehydrogenation reaction of ethane formed during biomass or tar decomposition.