Energy Efficiency of an Integrated Process Based on Gasification for Hydrogen Production from Biomass

Hydrogen production from CO2—neutral biomass is expected to play an important role in renewable hydrogen supply. This study investigates the overall energy eflciency of hydrogen production from biomass via an integrated process based biomass gasipcation. Key parameters and experimental data of the process were obtained from the literature, considering six cases of air-blown biomass gaslfiers due to the availability of experimental data in the literature. The results show that such an integrated system can generally have an overall energy efficiency of 40-6096, depending on biomass properties and process configurations. Significant efficiency improvement can be achieved i f the gasifier operates at a similar pressure to the reformer, which typically operates at elevated pressures. Analysis further suggests that the gasijkation with steam and other oxidiser (e.g. air) is the most energy efficient way for hydrogen production and such a strategy also delivers a high amount of hydrogen. Other strategies for efficiency improvements include increasing reaction conversion in the reformer, enhancing CO conversion in the shift reactor and improving process heat recovery. Limitations of this work and future necessary improvements are also discussed in this paper.