A γ-NA5 catalyst in the form of pellet was first to be reported and was pioneering in gasification to accelerate the production of syngas through biomass (palm empty fruit brunch) conversion. The synthesised γ-NA5 pellet possesses a high surface area of 212.32 m2 g−1, which renders more active sites for hydrocarbon cracking, subsequently leading to high H2 production (0.0716 m3 kg−1). Additionally, the pellet exhibits remarkable reversibility and reusability with 91% H2 production efficiency being retained after five consecutive gasification cycles. Distinctively, the feature of the synthesised γ-NA5 pellet from the conventional powder-like catalyst is that it eases the separation of the used catalyst from the biomass ash, and subsequently facilitates regeneration solely by calcination process. The loading of 20 wt.% optimised amount of catalyst itself has successfully shorten the completion of gasification process up to 135 min, which is highly feasible for a large scale industrial usage after considering the cost of the catalyst, facile preparation method, and catalyst’s effectiveness towards gasification.

Empty fruit bunch (EFB) waste is produced in large amount in Malaysia from intense oil palm agriculture activity. Direct usage of EFB as a source of energy is not economically feasible and ideally should be upgraded before it can produce green energy economically. Current gasification processes produces a lot of tar while yielding low amount of hydrogen. Flash gasification of EFB with the presence of catalysts shows improvements over the uncatalysed reaction. In this study, by using a high surface area support catalyst of ZSM-5 with the presence of 1% Ni, Zn, or Fe metal loading is sufficient to enhance the hydrogen production. ZSM-5, NiO/ZSM-5, CuO/ZSM-5, Fe2O3/ZSM-5 and ZnO/ZSM-5 catalyst with 1 wt % loading were prepared via the wet impregnation method. XRD patterns of the prepared catalysts shows almost identical peaks patterns which indicates high dispersion of dopants on the support catalyst Flash gasification was carried out at 900°C under isothermal heating conditions with 10 sccm 4.99% O2 diluted in He. Syngas produced was then analysed using an online quadrupole mass spectrometer. Catalytic activity for hydrogen production is the highest for NiO/ZSM-5 followed by ZnO/ZSM-5, Fe2O3/ZSM-5, ZSM-5.