Review of catalytic syngas production through steam or dry reforming and partial oxidation of studied liquid compounds

Although natural gas is the main feedstock for the production of hydrogen and syngas, liquid hydrocarbons and oxygenated compounds are of interest for reasons associated with their local availability and their easiness to be stored and transported. This review focuses on steam, dry, and partial oxidation of liquid feedstock. The vast research work published in these fields does not allow for a full coverage of the entire literature. Instead, the authors present from both scientific and technical stand points the knowledge which seems more promising toward eventual improvements of commercial units and utilization of new catalytic formulations. Since traditional steam reforming is relatively very well covered by other reviews, this review has mainly focused on the relatively recent works on glycerol, a biodiesel production by-product, and the widely available and distributed commercial diesel/biodiesel. New promising catalytic formulations are proposed and are actually under testing for eventual commercial use. Nevertheless these catalysts might be eventually efficient for gaseous (e.g., CH4) hydrocarbons conversion to syngas. Dry and partial oxidation has also been reviewed both globally and in an incremental way. All liquid feedstock tested are reported. Finally, this review tries to bridge the gap between fundamental and factual research in this field. Both are important but the interpretation of the results remains a strong function of each paper's main focus. This review does not pretend that this gap is fully bridged but it has the ambition to help the researchers as well as the practitioners in this area to synthesize the existing knowledge. (C) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.