What does this research mean for the field?

A validated thermochemical framework for hydrogen production from nine biomass feedstocks in Bangladesh achieves a peak hydrogen purity of 89.2% with 79% recovery. Novelty: ClaimNovelty.NOVEL_FINDING. Consensus alignment: ConsensusAlignment.NEUTRAL.

What question did this study set out to answer?

This work aims to establish a validated thermochemical model for hydrogen production from various biomass feedstocks, focusing on conversion efficiency.

February 22, 2026Open Access

A unified thermochemical conversion framework for hydrogen production from multiple biomass feedstocks

Key Points

This work aims to establish a validated thermochemical model for hydrogen production from various biomass feedstocks, focusing on conversion efficiency.
Integrated Aspen Plus model simulates biomass-to-hydrogen conversion stages.
Nine Bangladeshi biomass feedstocks evaluated under varying gasification temperatures and steam-to-biomass ratios.
Performance metrics include peak hydrogen purity via pressure swing adsorption and gasification yield measurements.
Model validation performed using RMSE and MAE metrics.
Peak hydrogen purity of 89.2% achieved with 79% recovery through pressure swing adsorption.
Hydrogen yield peaks near 800 °C, reaching 65.2% for municipal solid waste.
Increasing steam-to-biomass ratio enhances hydrogen yield by up to 30%.
Model aligns well with reference data, with RMSE of 0.87 and MAE less than 1.7.

Abstract

• Integrated Aspen Plus model simulates biomass-to-hydrogen conversion. • Nine Bangladeshi feedstocks assessed across gasification and upgrading stages. • Peak H 2 purity of 89.2 % achieved via PSA with 79 % recovery. • Simulation validated using RMSE (0.87) and MAE (1.7) metrics. • Optimal gasification near at −800 °C boosts H 2 yield and syngas quality. This study presents a validated, simulation-based thermochemical framework for hydrogen production from nine representative biomass feedstocks in Bangladesh. Using Aspen Plus, the integrated model encompasses DFB steam gasification, methanation and SMR as well as WGS reactions alongside hydrogen purification via pressure swing adsorption. Feedstocks-including food waste (FW), municipal solid waste (MSW), rice straw (RS), and wood residues (WR)-were evaluated across gasification temperatures from 500 °C to 1100 °C and steam-to-biomass ratios (SBRs) between 0.2 and 2.0. Hydrogen mole fractions peaked near 800 °C, reaching 65.2 % for MSW, 63.7 % for FW, and 61.5 % for green waste. Increasing SBR enhanced hydrogen yield by up to 30 % while reducing syngas lower heating value from 18 MJ/kg to 9 MJ/kg. Methanation temperature increases from 300 °C to 600 °C decreased CH 4 content from 82 % to 45 % and raised H 2 concentration in synthetic natural gas to 90 %. PSA purification achieved up to 89.2 % hydrogen purity with 79 % recovery. Model predictions aligned well with reference datasets (RMSE: 0.87; MAE: < 1.7). WR and FW delivered the highest hydrogen mass flow rates of 22 kg/hr and 20.5 kg/hr, respectively. Unlike previous studies, this work uniquely integrates all major thermochemical stages while evaluating underexplored biomass types, demonstrating the potential for decentralized, low-carbon hydrogen production. The results establish thermodynamic upper-bound benchmarks and highlight feedstock-dependent performance differences, offering insights relevant for early-stage pathway screening and regional resource assessment.

A unified thermochemical conversion framework for hydrogen production from multiple biomass feedstocks

Key Points

Abstract

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