Recent advances in thermochemical conversion of woody biomass for production of green hydrogen and CO2 capture: A review

Hydrogen as a green energy carrier has attracted great interests world-wide for substitution of fossil fuels and for abatement of the climate change concerns. However, green hydrogen from renewable resources is less than 0.1% at present in the world hydrogen production and this is largely from water electrolysis which is beneficial only when renewable electricity is used. Hydrogen production from diverse renewable resources is desirable. This review presents recent advances in hydrogen production from woody biomass through biomass steam gasification, producer gas processing and H2/CO2 separation. The producer gas processing includes steam-methane steam reforming (SMR) and water-gas shift (WGS) reactions to convert CH4 and CO in the producer gas to H2 and CO2. The H2 storage is also discussed using liquid carrier through hydrogenation are also discussed. The CO2 capture prior to the SMR is investigated to enhance H2 yield in the SMR and the WGS reactions.