Economic Assessment of Green Hydrogen Production from Biomass Gasification with Chemical Absorption and Membrane -based CO2 Capture

Abstract

Development of environmentally friendly energy carriers is of great importance today in the attempt to reduce the global warming and climate change. Hydrogen is seen as a promising energy carrier for the future low carbon economy on condition that it is produced in an environmentally friendly fashion as well as in energy and cost-effective ways. This work is evaluating the techno-economic implications of green hydrogen production from biomass gasification with CO₂ capture using various chemical gas-liquid absorption and membrane systems (including hybrid ones). The evaluated concepts have a capacity of 50,000 Nm³/h high purity hydrogen (> 99.95 % vol.) with a minimum 90 % CO₂ capture rate. As the results show, the biomass gasification integrated with chemical absorption and membrane systems for CO₂ removal has promising potential to give a high overall energy efficiency (about 57 - 59 %), low specific CO₂ emissions (about 55 - 60 kg/t hydrogen) and better environmental indicators (e.g., specific CO₂ emissions) than current fossil-based hydrogen production concepts.