Biorenewable hydrogen production through biomass gasification: A review and future prospects

Abstract

Hydrogen is recognized as one of the cleanest energy carriers, which can be produced from renewable biomass as a promising feedstock to achieve sustainable bioeconomy. Thermochemical technologies (e.g., gasification and pyrolysis) are the main routes for hydrogen production from biomass. Although biomass gasification, including steam gasification and supercritical water gasification, shows a high potential in field-scale applications, the selectivity and efficiency of hydrogen production need improvement to secure cost-effective industrial applications with high atom economy. This article reviews the two main-stream biomass-to-hydrogen technologies and discusses the significance of operating conditions and considerations in the catalytic system design. Challenges and prospects of hydrogen production via biomass gasification are explored to advise on the critical information gaps that require future investigations.