(529a) Techno-Economic Evaluation of Carbon-Negative Hydrogen Production from Biomass

Hydrogen is an important energy vector which has immense potential to lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in hard to abate industries. Currently H₂ is produced predominantly from fossil sources which entail associated CO₂ emissions. Biomass, on the other hand, is a natural sink for atmospheric CO₂ and if it is used for production of H₂ or other fuels, it would be almost carbon-neutral. If carbon capture is added to the process with permanent CO₂ storage, the final product would be carbon negative. This means that the process removes atmospheric CO₂. Here we evaluate a thermochemical pathway for production of H₂ from biomass (see Figure 1). It is comprised of an entrained flow gasifier (EFG), hot gas cleaning unit, water gas shift (WGS) reactor, CO₂ removal unit and pressure swing adsorption (PSA) unit. We have chosen technologies that are high in technology readiness level (TRL) and can be implemented today. The process is modeled in Aspen HYSYS^® for mass and energy balances while available literature data is used to estimate associated costs of the process. The results are benchmarked against the standard steam methane reforming (SMR) with respect to economics as well as GHG emissions. Through sensitivity analysis, key factors affecting economics and emissions are highlighted. This work helps to gain insight on the viability of sustainable H₂ production from biomass. Gasification of available biomass should be considered in addition to H₂ from natural gas or water electrolysis to supply the emerging hydrogen need in industry and economy.