In the last few decades, the production of value-added chemicals from biomass has become a key research focus. Biomass gasification into syngas and further for methane, methanol, and C₂₊ alcohols production has already proved to be promising for utilization of renewable energy. Therefore, heterogeneous catalyst design and optimization are extremely significant for solving the issues of tar formation during biomass gasification. Apart from alkali metals, natural minerals, and synthetic catalysts, char and char supported catalysts prepared from residual biomass or coal have been already proved to be effective for tar reforming due to their relative chemical inertness, cheap price, excellent pore structures, etc. Advantageously, bio−/coal char could be modified and/or functionalized with heteroatoms doping and metal addition to improve activity in tar reforming. In this review, we systematically discussed the preparation, modification, and application of char catalysts in the reforming of biomass tar and tar model compounds. After that, we reviewed and compared the activity of char catalysts in tar reforming, and then we gave corresponding reactions and deactivation mechanisms over char catalysts in biomass tar reforming. Finally, we proposed existed challenges and shared our perspectives regarding future needs in char catalysts design for accelerating fuel sustainability and green development.

在过去的几十年中，由生物质生产增值化学品已成为研究的重点。生物质气化成合成气，进一步生产甲烷，甲醇和C ₂₊醇，已被证明对利用可再生能源很有前途。因此，非均相催化剂的设计和优化对于解决生物质气化过程中焦油形成的问题非常重要。除碱金属，天然矿物和合成催化剂外，由残余生物质或煤制得的焦炭和焦炭负载型催化剂由于其相对的化学惰性，价格便宜，优异的孔结构等，已被证明对焦油重整有效。有利的是，可以通过杂原子掺杂和金属添加来改性和/或功能化生物/煤焦，以提高焦油重整的活性。在这篇综述中，我们系统地讨论了焦炭催化剂的制备，改性和在生物质焦油和焦油模型化合物的重整中的应用。在此之后，我们回顾并比较了焦油重整过程中焦炭催化剂的活性，然后给出了生物质焦油重整过程中焦炭催化剂的相应反应和失活机理。最后，我们提出了挑战，并就炭催化剂设计的未来需求分享了我们的观点，以加快燃料的可持续性和绿色发展。