Hydrogen from biomass: Large-scale hydrogen production based on a dual fluidized bed steam gasification system

Abstract

Hydrogen is used as an important feedstock for the chemical industry. Common production technologies for the production of hydrogen from fossil fuels today cause relevant CO2 emissions. Hydrogen from renewable energy sources is discussed as an alternative option to replace traditional feedstock and can therefore be part of a low-carbon energy system. This paper describes the results of a simulation of a concept for the production of hydrogen with biomass as feedstock. The described investigations include a possible process design, the process simulation using the software IPSEpro, a description of the operation characteristics, and a profitability analysis of the applied hydrogen production concept. The simulation result shows that 61 MW of hydrogen can be produced from 100 MW wood chips and 6 MW of electricity. As a result, hydrogen production costs of 54 €/MWh can be estimated. For the investigated concept, the wood chip price is the most important factor for the hydrogen production cost followed by investment costs for the plant and the realized plant operation time per year. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.