Biomass-to-hydrogen: A review of main routes production, processes evaluation and techno-economical assessment
Graphical abstract
Introduction
Transport (particularly road and air transport) alone is responsible for more than 20% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions [[1], [2], [3]]. To address this substantial environmental problem, the use of renewable energies, including alternative fuels and biofuels, should reduce the overall CO2 emissions in the transport sector. Forecasts through 2050 underline the need for all categories of renewables to account for approximately 27% of the total transport fuel consumption [4].
Hydrogen has been closely linked to the transport and fuel sector for many decades. Not only is this molecule involved in several operations (hydrotreatments) in crude oil refinery but hydrogen is also exploited as a reagent/processing agent for the production of alternative fuels (e.g, liquefaction of micro-algae) [[5], [6], [7]]. Hydrogen can also be used as a “clean” fuel as it is; its combustion generates only water vapor as a by-product [[8], [9], [10]]. Besides crude-oil refining (representing more than 33% of the H2 consumption), hydrogen has been utilised in many other applications, mostly ammonia production (27%) and methanol manufacturing (11%) [11].
Market forecasts underline that H2 production will increase significantly over the next few years, with a growth of 5–10% per year from 50 to 82 Mt by 2050 [12]. The industrial H2 demand is also expected to increase, especially for ammonia and steel production, by about 2 EJ/a for each of these activities in 2050, while the H2 demand for hydrogen-based vehicles is estimated to reach 22 EJ/a by 2050 [12]. These forecasts also demonstrate an increased use of hydrogen in the manufacturing of new biofuels (from algae or plant materials) that will impact the hydrogen market and require higher production volumes in the next few years. With a suitable policy and creation of new infrastructures, a hydrogen economy could emerge after 2030 [13].
Currently, more than 98% of the H2 production is ensured from fossil resources, through either natural gas steam reforming, SMR (accounting for 76% of the global production), or coal gasification (22%) [14]. SMR is currently the most economical option and is responsible for approximately 9 kg of CO2 per kg of H2 produced [14]. The alternative to renewable feedstock instead of natural gas appears to be compulsory to mitigate the release of greenhouse gases and would be a substantial step toward carbon-neutral emissions [8,15,16]. However, only 2% of the current H2 production is from renewable resources, mostly from water electrolysis, an emerging technology, with no significant use of vegetal/algal biomass on the industrial scale currently [11]. Water splitting is one of the most studied processes, mostly electrolysis (TRL 9, available at a small scale), with more innovative approaches such as thermolysis and photolysis (TRL 1–2, under research) [17]. Considering biomass, research has emphasised lignocellulosic matrices (e.g. wood, forestry side-products, agricultural residues, and dedicated energy crops) and their conversion, primarily using thermochemical (gasification, pyrolysis) pathways [[18], [19], [20]]. The maturity level of these proposals is aligned with TRL 7. Other alternatives include biological conversion (TRL 4–5) and electrochemical conversion (TRL 2–4). The hydrogen production costs from biomass remain quite high, ranging from 1.21 to 2.42 $/kg when choosing gasification to 1.21–2.19 $/kg for pyrolysis, which is three times higher than that of SMR (0.75 $/kg) [21]. Even if some scenarios involve an economic production of biomass in 2050, biomass should be at the price of coal (ranging from to 40–100 $/MT for coal and up to 140 $/MT for biomass) to be competitive for energy production [22]. Currently, lignocellulosic biomass is expensive to produce. However, forecasts indicate a decreasing price of biomass at the expense of fossil resources that could be impacted by environmental policies and the CO2 price [23]. Hence, an increase in the H2 costs from coal gasification is expected from $ 1 to 2.7 $/kg in China by 2030 due to taxation [11]. Regarding the cost of hydrogen produced from water by electrolysis, it should decrease from $ 3 to 2.8 $/kg H2 if renewable electricity is used and from 5.3 to 4.8 $/kg H2 using the electricity grid by 2030. These costs would remain higher than those from the biomass conversion forecasts [11].
This review aims to describe the different H2-production pathways from biomass and is formatted as follows: In the second section, the two important thermochemical and biological pathways are reviewed as well as the description of the electrochemical conversion potential. A comparison between the processes in terms of their performance in hydrogen yield and their advantages and drawbacks is proposed in the third section. Recent improvements and process optimisations are reviewed in the fourth section, while a techno-economic assessment based on the latest advances in the field is established in the fifth section. An evaluation of hydrogen as a fuel is examined in the sixth section, and key findings are highlighted in the seventh section.
Section snippets
Main production routes for H2 production from biomass
Currently, 98% of the global hydrogen used is produced from fossil fuels, with the predominant production process as steam methane reforming. Other options based on renewable resources are currently in pilot-scale demonstrations or at the commercial stage, namely water splitting and H2-generation from biomass, particularly lignocellulosic feedstock.
Lignocellulosic biomass is derived from agri-food side products, agricultural residues, energy crops, marine residues, and forest by-products [24].
SWOT analysis of the main process used from biomass
Several (thermochemical, biological, and electrochemical) technologies are described below regarding their ability to produce hydrogen from biomass. Table 4 summarises the key advantages and drawbacks of each process.
Thermochemical conversions have the advantage of being available at a large production scale because the technologies used are based on current well-established methods for converting fossil fuels. Therefore, the industrial design has already been established [116]. Despite being
Improvements of thermochemical approaches
Gasification is perhaps the most thoroughly studied process, and its improvement has been abundantly described and updated. One key element of the current research is to find suitable operating conditions and catalysts that can effectively increase the volume of the gas produced and its quality at a low cost [125]. New efficient catalysts are added to promote tar conversion and prevent the formation of unwanted products. Some studies have already reviewed and compared a wide range of available
Techno-economic comparison of hydrogen producing processes
The techno-economic assessment of an industrial hydrogen production facility relies on two major expenses: capital investments (CAPEX) and operational costs (OPEX). The critical issue is to reduce the CAPEX and OPEX of the different processes while increasing the production volume. This approach would allow the reduction of H2 production costs from renewable resources to compete with fossil fuels. In most cases, the CAPEX value was estimated using the software “Aspen Plus” or “Aspen Hysys” in
Hydrogen assessment as fuel in transportation
As a future energy, hydrogen is a potential candidate to ensure a renewable, sustainable, and
secure fuel [177]. Compared with traditional fuels, H2 has the characteristic of being used in both fuel cells and internal combustion engines [5]. In fuel cells (HFC), electricity is generated through a combination of hydrogen and oxygen. This electrochemical reaction is assured by a catalyst that splits H2 into electrons and protons. The positively charged protons cross the cathode, and the negatively
Conclusions
Among the initiatives currently taken to partially overcome global warming, a great deal of research has been conducted on hydrogen as an alternative energy vector. Various conversion pathways have already been investigated to produce H2 from lignocellulosic biomass.
Thermochemical processes are the most common technologies. Gasification is the predominant process globally and should reach the industrial scale (TRL 9) in a few decades. Steam gasification is the best compromise as it does not
Supplementary information
This paper is associated with the S1 document showing, in table form, the H2 yields from various biomasses, estimated in g per kg of dry biomass.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the European Union and the Walloon Region with the European Funds for Regional Development 2014–2020 in the framework of the VERDIR Tropical Plant Factory program (project BioResidu).
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