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Hydrogen generation from biomass by pyrolysis

Nature Reviews Methods Primers volume 2, Article number: 20 (2022) Cite this article

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Abstract

The growing environmental concerns associated with global warming along with the exponential rise in energy demand are boosting the production of clean energy. The combined process of biomass pyrolysis and in-line catalytic steam reforming is a promising alternative for the selective production of hydrogen from renewable sources. This Primer provides a general overview of the fundamental aspects that influence the hydrogen production potential of the process. Recent research studies and their main findings are highlighted. The current challenges and limitations of the process and ways to optimize the biomass-derived products of steam reforming are discussed. Finally, we evaluate progress toward the industrial scalability of the process.

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Fig. 1: Key equations for biomass pyrolysis and in-line steam reforming process.
Fig. 2: Reactor configurations for pyrolysis and in-line reforming of biomass.
Fig. 3: Modelling of biomass pyrolysis–reforming process.
Fig. 4: Comparison of Aspen Plus results with respect to experimental results using the relative error method.

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Acknowledgements

This work was carried out with the financial support of grants RTI2018-101678-B-I00, RTI2018-098283-J-I00 and PID2019-107357RB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 and by “ERDF: A way of making Europe” and the grants IT1218-19 and KK-2020/00107 funded by the Basque government. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement 823745.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Bilbao, Spain

    Gartzen Lopez & Laura Santamaria

  2. IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, Spain

    Gartzen Lopez

  3. School of Chemical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Angeliki Lemonidou

  4. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK

    Shuming Zhang & Chunfei Wu

  5. School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China

    Ayesha T. Sipra & Ningbo Gao

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  1. Gartzen Lopez
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  2. Laura Santamaria
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  3. Angeliki Lemonidou
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  4. Shuming Zhang
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  5. Chunfei Wu
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Contributions

Introduction (A.L.); Experimentation (S.Z. and C.W.); Results (A.T.S. and N.G.); Applications (G.L. and L.S.); Reproducibility and data deposition (G.L. and L.S.); Limitations and optimizations (G.L. and L.S.); Outlook (G.L. and L.S.); Overview of the Primer (G.L.).

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Correspondence to Gartzen Lopez.

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Nature Reviews Methods Primers thanks Jing-Pei Cao and Herma Setiabudi for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Glossary

Steam gasification

High-temperature thermochemical process in which a carbonaceous material is converted into synthesis gas (a gaseous mixture of hydrogen and carbon oxide) using steam as the oxidizing agent.

Flash pyrolysis

Thermochemical process in which the feedstock is rapidly heated up to moderate temperatures (400–550 °C) in the absence of air, devolatilizes and produces a liquid (the target product), gases and char.

Steam reforming

Thermochemical process for hydrogen production in which a carbonaceous feedstock reacts with water steam at temperatures of 450–800 °C in the presence of a suitable catalyst.

Fixed-bed reactors

Tubular reactor filled with feedstock and/or catalyst, in which the reactants flow through the bed to be converted into products.

Fluidized-bed reactors

Type of chemical reactor in which a solid material (usually a catalyst) is suspended by the upward flow of a fluid.

Screw-kiln reactor

Type of reactor in which a screw conveyor is used to perform chemical reactions under controlled temperature and residence time conditions.

Spouted-bed reactors

Type of fluidized-bed reactor that uses a single gas inlet nozzle instead of a distributor plate.

K-type thermocouple

Type of electronic temperature sensor containing Chromel and Alumel conductors, used for monitoring high temperatures.

Cyclone

Device for the removal of particles from the fluid stream, consisting of a chamber that creates a spiral vortex whose rotational effects plus gravity are used to separate mixtures of solids and fluids.

Venturi scrubber

Gas–solid separation device in which a liquid auxiliary stream is finely pulverized using a venturi to ensure efficient particle collection.

Syngas

Fuel gas mixture produced from feedstock hydrocarbon, composed of hydrogen (H2) and carbon monoxide (CO) as primary components and carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) as the remaining compounds.

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Lopez, G., Santamaria, L., Lemonidou, A. et al. Hydrogen generation from biomass by pyrolysis. Nat Rev Methods Primers 2, 20 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43586-022-00097-8

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