Processes and systems for making renewable graphite from biomass-derived syngas

A process for producing biographite from biomass, said process comprising:

• (a) converting a biomass feedstock into at least a syngas stream, wherein said syngas stream contains CO, CO2, H2, optionally H2O, and optionally CH4;
• (b) providing a catalytic-metal structure comprising an aromatization catalyst that enhances formation of aromatic carbon from adsorbed vapor-phase carbon-containing species;
• (c) placing said catalytic-metal structure into an internal volume of a syngas-deposition reactor;
• (d) feeding said syngas stream into said syngas-deposition reactor, wherein said syngas-deposition reactor contains less than 0.1 wt % O2 and less than 10 wt % H2O based on all reactor contents, wherein said syngas-deposition reactor is operated at a syngas-deposition temperature from about 500° C. to about 1200° C., and wherein carbon contained in said CO deposits onto said catalytic-metal structure to form fused aromatic rings on the surface of said catalytic-metal structure, thereby forming a carbon-coated catalytic-metal structure;
• (e) retrieving said carbon-coated catalytic-metal structure from said syngas-deposition reactor;
• (f) recovering graphite-precursor carbon from said carbon-coated catalytic-metal structure, thereby generating a spent catalytic-metal structure;
• (g) thermally treating said graphite-precursor carbon to generate crystalline graphite;
• and
• (h) recovering said crystalline graphite as a biographite product.