Paper details

Title:

Hydrogen from Biomass Sources: Technological Review and Energy and Greenhouse Gases Emissions Assessment

Author(s):

Buffi, M., Prussi, M., Scarlat, N.

Document(s):

Abstract:

Hydrogen might be the most abundant element, but it is rarely found in its pure form. Pure hydrogen derives from thermochemical processing of fossil- or bio-derived resources, biological processes, or from water electrolysis. High hydrogen production demand is today hampering large productions from renewable electricity. This pathway is considered as one of the pillars of European decarbonisation strategy, boosting a novel concept of energy market in line with the EU’s commitment to achieve clean energy transition and reach the European Green Deal carbon neutrality goals by 2050. Another clean production strategy consists in the use of biomass to produce renewable hydrogen, offering a ready alternative to electrolysis. Today, biomass-derived hydrogen can be produced either from thermochemical pathways (i.e. pyrolysis, liquefaction, and gasification) or from biological pathways (i.e. direct or indirect-biophotolysis, biological water–gas shift reaction, photo-fermentation and dark-fermentation). The paper reviews several pathways to produce hydrogen from biomass or biomass-derived sources and provides an exhaustive review of the most promising technologies towards commercialization. Different production pathways are evaluated in terms of environmental performances, including also the benefits and barriers related to their potential marked uptake.

Keywords:

biomass, energy balance, gasification, hydrogen, environmental assessment, CO₂ emissions

Topic:

Plenaries

Subtopic:

Green Hydrogen

Event:

29th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition

Session:

CP.2.2

Pages:

28 - 31

ISBN:

978-88-89407-21-9

Paper DOI:

10.5071/29thEUBCE2021-CP.2.2

Price:

FREE