Techno‐Economic Assessment of Biomethane and Biohydrogen Production From Victorian Wheat Straw

In an effort to help reduce the impact of anthropogenic climate change, research into the co‐production of hydrogen and carbon from wheat straw biomass, which turns carbon contents into valuable solid products instead of immediate emission, has shown some promise. To investigate this, comparative simulations were performed to determine the economic feasibility of hydrogen and carbon co‐production via the combined process, including biomass gasification, bio‐syngas methanation, and methane pyrolysis in comparison with traditional hydrogen production technologies. Unlike traditional biomass processing techniques, the combined process proposed in this study is relatively less investigated. This study carefully analyzed a range of factors, including the maturity of specific techniques, feedstock availability and cost, energy requirements, operational scale, and local market conditions. Two alternative approaches were proposed, targeting the production of either bio‐methane or bio‐hydrogen, depending on market demand. Off‐grid renewable photovoltaic energy was applied based on the Australian context, which can reduce the electricity price down to 0.95 ¢/kWh. Both approaches can make positive profits with 1.52 and 2.33 value of benefit‐to‐cost ratio, respectively. In addition, the proposed approach, which utilizes on‐site power generation with zero carbon emissions, saves carbon footprints of 26.59 and 5.68 kg‐CO 2e /kg‐H 2 that would otherwise be associated with conventional coal and biomass gasification processes, respectively. The levelized hydrogen production cost can be compensated by the production of high‐value‐added carbon solids. This study proposed a way to combine the application of renewable resources of off‐grid electricity and biomass.