Hydrogen Production from Bio-Char via Steam Gasification in a Fluidized-Bed Reactor

Renewable and high-purity hydrogen from lignocellulosic biomass in a biorefinery approach

Unprecedented efforts are being deployed to develop hydrogen production from bioresources in a circular economy approach, yet their implementation remains scarce. Today's Challenges are associated with the shortage in the value chain, lack of large-scale production infrastructure, high costs, and low efficiency of current solutions. Herein, we report a hydrogen production route from cellulose pulp, integrating biomass fractionation and gasification in a biorefinery approach. Softwood sawdust undergoes formic acid organosolv treatment to extract cellulose, followed by steam gasification. High-purity hydrogen-rich syngas at a concentration of 56.3 vol% and a yield of 40 gH2/kgcellulose was produced. Char gasification offers the advantage of producing free-tar syngas reducing cleaning costs and mitigating downstream issues. A comprehensive assessment of mass and energy balance along the hydrogen value chain revealed an efficiency of 26.5% for hydrogen production, with an energy requirement of 111.1 kWh/kgH2. Optimizing solvent recovery and valorization of other constituents as added-value products in a biorefinery approach would further improve the process and entice its industrial takeoff.

An integrated process for hydrogen-rich gas production from cotton stalks: The simultaneous gasification of pyrolysis gases and char in an entrained flow bed reactor

An integrated process (pyrolysis, gas-solid simultaneous gasification and catalytic steam reforming) was utilized to produce hydrogen-rich gas from cotton stalks. The simultaneous conversion of the pyrolysis products (char and pyrolysis gases) was emphatically investigated using an entrained flow bed reactor. More carbon of char is converted into hydrogen-rich gas in the simultaneous conversion process and the carbon conversion is increased from 78.84% to 92.06% compared with the two stages process (pyrolysis and catalytic steam reforming). The distribution of tar components is also changed in this process. The polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs) of tar are converted into low-ring compounds or even chain compounds due to the catalysis of char. In addition, the carbon deposition yield over NiO/MgO catalyst in the steam reforming process is approximately 4 times higher without the simultaneous process. The potential H2 yield increases from 47.71 to 78.19g/kg cotton stalks due to the simultaneous conversion process.