J Mater Cycles Waste Manag (2011) 13:186–189
DOI 10.1007/s10163-011-0017-x
SPECIAL FEATURE: ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Reduction of tar using cheap catalysts during
sewage sludge gasification
Seok-Pyo Hong • Jong-In Dong • Sang-Ku Yeo •
In-Hee Park • Moon-Sik Chung • Doo-Il Kim •
Young-Kwon Park
Received: 5 November 2010 / Accepted: 20 February 2011 / Published online: 29 June 2011
Ó Springer 2011
Abstract Solid-fuel conversion or gasification study of
sewage sludge and energy recovery has become increas-
ingly important because energy recovery and climate
change are emerging issues. Various types of catalysts,
such as dolomite, steel slag and calcium oxide, were tested
for tar reduction during the sewage sludge gasification
process. For the experiments on sewage sludge gasification
reactions and tar reduction using the catalysts, a fixed bed
of laboratory-scale experimental apparatus was set up. The
reactor was made of quartz glass using an electric muffle
furnace. The sewage sludge samples used had moisture
contents less than 6%. The experimental conditions were as
follows: sample weight was 20 g and reaction time was
10 min, gasification reaction temperature was from 600 to
800°C, and the equivalence ratio was 0.2. The quantity of
catalysts was 2–6 g, and temperatures of catalyst layers
were 500–700°C. As the reaction temperature increased up
to 800°C, the yields of gaseous products and liquid prod-
ucts increased, whereas char and tar products decreased,
showing effects on gas product compositions. These results
were considered to be due to the increase of the water-gas
reaction and Boudouard reaction. In the case of experi-
ments with catalysts, dolomite (4 g), steel slag (6 g) and
calcium oxide (6 g) were used. When the temperature of
catalysts increased, the weight of the tar produced
decreased with different cracking performances by differ-
ent catalysts. Reforming reactions were considered to occur
on the surface of dolomite, steel slag and calcium oxide,
S.-P. Hong  J.-I. Dong (&)  S.-K. Yeo  I.-H. Park 
M.-S. Chung  D.-I. Kim  Y.-K. Park
School of Environmental Engineering, The University of Seoul,
90 Jeonnong-2 Dong,Dongdaemoon-Gu, Seoul 130-743, Korea
e-mail: jidong@uos.ac.kr
123
The 6th International Conference on Combustion,
Incineration/Pyrolysis and Emission Control
(6th i-CIPEC)
causing cracking of the hydrocarbon structure, which
eventually showed reduced tar generation.
Keywords Tar reduction  Sewage sludge  Cheap
catalysts  Dolomite  Cracking of hydrocarbons
Introduction
Sewage sludge is the residue produced by the treatment of
domestic and industrial wastewater. In Korea, water utili-
zation and the number of sewage facilities have increased,
and the generation rate of sewage sludge is increasing
every year. At present, most sewage sludge treatment
depends on ocean dumping in Korea [1]. Therefore, the
country is seeking other treatment options to replace ocean
dumping. Among various technologies, waste to energy is
considered one of appropriate alternatives, which includes
incineration, pyrolysis, gasification and carbonization.
The technology of air gasification seems to be a feasible
application and has been developed actively for industrial
application. However, this technology has the limitation that
it produces tar in the process. Tar formation is considered one
of the major problems during biomass gasification.
Tar normally condenses at reduced temperatures, thus
blocking and fouling process equipment such as engines
and turbines. Therefore, study of tar reduction and removal
needs to be developed as one of the gasification studies.
Since the mid 1980s, researches on the reduction of tar
have been mainly carried out via catalytic cracking [2].
Among them, Ni-based catalysts and precious metal cata-
lysts have shown high catalytic activity for tar reduction. It
was, however, reported that these catalysts still have many
problems, even though they showed good activity in
the reduction of tar. Ni-based catalysts initially show high
J Mater Cycles Waste Manag (2011) 13:186–189
activity, but they are deactivated rapidly because of coke
deposition. Rh supported catalysts showed the best per-
formance not only in terms of activity and stability, but
also in terms of the selectivity for hydrogen production.
However, the high cost of Rh limits its applications to the
steam reforming of tar. Therefore, a cheap and efficient
catalyst for the reduction of tar is required.
In this paper, we studied sewage sludge gasification and
tar reduction technology utilizing cheap catalysts for sew-
age sludge treatment and energy recovery.
Materials and methods
Feed material
Sewage sludge was sampled from a sewage treatment plant
located in Seoul, with moisture of about 6%. For uniform
particle size of sewage sludge feeds, a sieve in the size range
of 350–800 lm was used. Ultimate analysis was performed
using an organic elemental analysis device (Thermofinnigan
EA1108), and approximate analysis was done following the
standard waste test method of Korea. Heavy metal analysis
was done using an ICP-AES (thermo IRIS XDL Duo).
Experimental setup
For the experiments on sewage sludge gasification reaction
characteristics and tar reduction using catalysts, a fixed bed
of laboratory-scale experimental apparatus with a 10-mm
inner diameter and 200-mm height reactor was set up, and
Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of
the test reactor system
187
a catalyst reactor with 10-mm inner diameter and 100-mm
height made of quartz glass was set up using electric muffle
furnaces (Fig. 1).
The experimental conditions were changed; the sample
weight was 0.02 kg and reaction time 10 min; the gasification
reaction temperature was from 600 to 800°C [3, 4], and the
equivalence ratio was 0.2. Quantity of catalysts was 2–6 g, and
temperatures of the catalyst layer were 500, 600 and 700°C.
Sampling and analysis
The gas was analyzed for yield; the composition of product
gas by GC/TCD installed with a carboxen-1000 column
and tar composition of product gas were determined by
GC-MS installed with an HP-Plan Al2O3/KCl column.
Catalysts
The catalysts were prepared using dolomite (Seongshin
Inc.), steel slag (Hyundai-Steel Co., Ltd.) and calcium oxide
(Taeyoung EMC Co., Ltd.). Test catalysts are cheaper than
commercial catalysts, and their ingredients are similar.
Results and discussion
Feed material and preparation of catalysts
The analysis results of the feed material are shown in
Table 1. The feeds contained high volatile matter contents.
Carbon and oxygen are the main contents, at about 40 and
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188 J Mater Cycles Waste Manag (2011) 13:186–189

Table 1 The analysis results of the dried sewage sludge samples Table 3 Product yields at elevated reaction temperatures from 600 to
(Unit: wt%) 800°C (unit: wt%)
Ultimate analysis C H O N S Temperature ER Tar Char Liquid Gas
(°C)
Test 1 40.15 6.11 47.17 5.45 1.12
Test 2 39.98 6.09 46.80 5.55 1.58 Test 1 600 0.2 8.61 62.50 12.29 16.60
Test 3 39.10 6.06 48.51 5.31 1.02 Test 2 700 0.2 7.59 58.70 15.96 17.75
Test 4 39.66 6.08 47.80 5.46 1.00 Test 3 800 0.2 7.25 54.85 19.25 18.65
Average 39.72 6.09 47.57 5.44 1.18
Proximate analysis Moisture Volatile Ash 45

Test 1 6.14 70.80 23.06 40

Test 2 5.99 66.53 27.33 35

Test 3 6.31 68.10 25.91

Vol%
30
H2
Average 6.15 68.48 25.43 25 CO
CO2
20
CH4
15
10
Table 2 X-ray fluorescence spectrometry results of the catalysts
(unit: wt%) 5
600°C 700°C 800°C
Calcium oxide Dolomite Steel slag
Fig. 2 Experimental results of product gas from 600 to 800°C
CaO 95.74 93.69 37.37
Fe2O3 1.83 4.85 46.70
SiO2 ND ND 10.51
temperature from 600 to 800°C. The amount of tar was
determined by the weight difference of the condenser [5,
MnO 0.06 0.36 4.05
6]. A substantial amount of char was observed at a short
reaction time and low temperature, as shown in Table 3.
47%, respectively. Moisture content of dried sewage sludge But the reaction of organic material in the sewage sludge
is about 6%. The higher heating value of dried sewage was more activated at a high temperature of 800°C,
sludge is about 4,200 kcal/kg. reducing char production. The yields of gas and liquid
Test catalysts were dolomite, steel slag and calcium products increased, whereas that of tar decreased.
oxide. The steel slag is the residue of the steel manufac- The decreased tar product had an effect on gas product
turing process. The particles of dolomite, steel slag and composition, and H2, CH4 and CO tended to increase, as
calcium oxide were sieved to a particle size range of shown in Fig. 2. These results were considered to be due to
14–24 lm. These catalysts were burned for 3 h in a furnace the activation of the water-gas reaction (1) and Boudouard
at 550°C. Increasing temperature of the catalyst was per- reaction (2) [7].
formed for fixation of the catalyst layer. C þ H2 O ! H2 þ CO ð1Þ
CO2 þ C ! 2CO ð2Þ
Analysis results of catalyst contents
The results of tar reduction utilizing test catalysts
The results of catalyst analysis are shown in Table 2. For
dolomite and calcined lime, CaO showed the highest The smallest tar content was obtained for dolomite, and
contents. In case of steel slag, CaO and Fe2O3 showed steel slag showed the poorest activity, as shown in Fig. 3.
similar content levels. However, all of the catalysts showed higher activities than
in operations without catalysts.
Gasification test results The test results of the compositions of product gases are
shown in Fig. 4. Compared with steel slag and calcium
Feeder input was determined by the feeder rotation speed, oxide, dolomite showed higher selectivity to CO2. Mean-
and the compositions of produced gas were analyzed for while, calcium oxide showed the lowest selectivity to CO2
the gasification tests using the fixed bed. For the experi- because of the reaction of CaO with CO2 [8]. In terms of H2
ments of sewage sludge gasification reaction characteris- and CH4, calcium oxide showed the highest selectivity, and
tics, the gasification experimental conditions were steel slag and the dolomite showed the next highest
changed: The equivalence ratio was 0.2 and reaction performances.

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J Mater Cycles Waste Manag (2011) 13:186–189
Fig. 3 Tar contents of sewage sludge gasification tests
Fig. 4 Gas composition for various catalyst treatments
From these observations of initial tests, the test catalysts
were considered to have some capability to reduce tar
levels; especially dolomite showed the highest possibility
for process application for low tar gasification of dried
sewage sludge. Calcium oxide, however, showed relatively
higher yields of hydrogen and methane, but showed a lower
yield for carbon monoxide.
Conclusions
The gasification characteristics of dried sewage sludge
were investigated in terms of yields of gaseous products
189
and tar products utilizing a laboratory-scale fixed bed
reactor. In order to verify the capability of reducing tar
amounts during sewage sludge air gasification, cheap cat-
alysts such as dolomite, steel slag and calcium oxide were
selected and tested at various operating conditions. Among
them, the calcium oxide catalyst showed the highest
activity for hydrogen and methane, with the lowest selec-
tivity of CO2. These results were considered to be because
of the high amount of calcium oxide contents cracking the
hydrocarbon structure.
On the other hand, dolomite showed the highest tar
reduction activity during the gasification of dried sewage
sludge. According to these results, dolomite can be con-
sidered one of the cheap catalysts that can be applied to the
gasification process of organic waste such as sewage
sludge.
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