Climate change and fossil fuel depletion are the main reasons leading to hydrogen technology. There are many processes for hydrogen production from both conventional and alternative energy resources such as natural gas, coal, nuclear, biomass, solar and wind. In this work, a comparative overview of the major hydrogen production methods is carried out. The process descriptions along with the technical and economic aspects of 14 different production methods are discussed. An overall comparison is carried out, and the results regarding both the conventional and renewable methods are presented. The thermochemical pyrolysis and gasification are economically viable approaches providing the highest potential to become competitive on a large scale in the near future while conventional methods retain their dominant role in H2 production with costs in the range of 1.34–2.27 $/kg. Biological methods appear to be a promising pathway but further research studies are needed to improve their production rates, while the low conversion efficiencies in combination with the high investment costs are the key restrictions for water-splitting technologies to compete with conventional methods. However, further development of these technologies along with significant innovations concerning H2 storage, transportation and utilization, implies the decrease of the national dependence on fossil fuel imports and green hydrogen will dominate over the traditional energy resources.

A comparative overview of hydrogen production processes

Hydrogen production, storage, transportation and key challenges with applications: A review

Biomass gasification is a widely used thermochemical process for obtaining products with more value and potential applications than the raw material itself. Cutting-edge, innovative and economical gasification techniques with high efficiencies are a prerequisite for the development of this technology. This paper delivers an assessment on the fundamentals such as feedstock types, the impact of different operating parameters, tar formation and cracking, and modelling approaches for biomass gasification. Furthermore, the authors comparatively discuss various conventional mechanisms for gasification as well as recent advances in biomass gasification. Unique gasifiers along with multi-generation strategies are discussed as a means to promote this technology into alternative applications, which require higher flexibility and greater efficiency. A strategy to improve the feasibility and sustainability of biomass gasification is via technological advancement and the minimization of socio-environmental effects. This paper sheds light on diverse areas of biomass gasification as a potentially sustainable and environmentally friendly technology.

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An overview of advances in biomass gasification

Biomass gasification technology: The state of the art overview

The discovery of abundant natural gas resources has greatly increased the study of using methane as a feedstock to produce transportation fuels. Biogas (primarily containing methane and CO2), which is generated from waste biomass via anaerobic digestion or landfills, is regarded as a renewable source of methane, and has the potential to achieve sustainable production of transportation fuels. Since biogas also contains a significant amount of impurities (e.g., H2S, NH3, and siloxane), a cleaning procedure is generally required prior to conversion to transportation fuels. Physical approaches, mainly compression and liquefaction, have been commercially applied to upgrade biogas to bio-compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied biogas (LBG). For chemical approaches, catalytic reforming is the dominant method for converting methane to syngas, followed by Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (FTS) or fermentation of syngas to a variety of alcohols (e.g., methanol, ethanol, and butanol) and liquid hydrocarbon fuels (e.g., gasoline, diesel, and jet fuels). High purity hydrogen, a clean fuel, can also be produced via reforming. Methanol can be produced by direct oxidation of methane, while interest in the biological conversion of methane to methanol has grown recently due to its mild operating conditions, high conversion efficiency, and potential for using raw biogas. The derived methanol can be further converted to gasoline via a methanol to gasoline (MTG) process. This paper provides a comprehensive review of major research progress on technologies for converting biogas/methane into transportation fuels, and discusses the principles, kinetics, operating conditions, and performance of each technology. Efficient direct conversion of biogas into ethanol and higher alcohol fuels (e.g. butanol), which is envisaged to be the focus of research pursuits in the near future, is also discussed, with emphasis on the development of methane-utilizing microbes through genetic engineering.

Progress and perspectives in converting biogas to transportation fuels

Gasification of biomass with oxygen-enriched air in a pilot scale two-stage gasifier

A ZSM-5/MCM-48 based catalyst for methanol to gasoline conversion

Hydrothermal synthesis of nanocrystalline H[Fe, Al]ZSM-5 zeolites for conversion of methanol to gasoline

Hydrogenation of naphthalene over noble metal supported on mesoporous zeolite in the absence and presence of sulfur

http://ir.qibebt.ac.cn/bitstream/337004/6164/1/Facile%20synthesis%20of%20SAPO-34%20with%20small%20crystal%20size%20for%20conversion%20of%20methanol%20to%20olefins.pdf

Jianqing Li

Papers

Gasification of biomass with oxygen-enriched air in a pilot scale two-stage gasifier

A ZSM-5/MCM-48 based catalyst for methanol to gasoline conversion

Hydrothermal synthesis of nanocrystalline H[Fe, Al]ZSM-5 zeolites for conversion of methanol to gasoline

Hydrogenation of naphthalene over noble metal supported on mesoporous zeolite in the absence and presence of sulfur

Facile synthesis of SAPO-34 with small crystal size for conversion of methanol to olefins