Effects of feedstocks on the process integration of biohydrogen production

Abstract

Future production of hydrogen must be sustainable. To obtain it, renewable resources have to be employed for its production. Fermentation of biomasses could be a viable way. The process evaluated is a two-step fermentation to produce hydrogen from biomass. Process options with barley straws, PSP, and thick juice as feedstocks have been compared on the basis of process balances. Aspen Plus has been used to calculate mass and energy balances taking into account the integration of the process. Results show that the production of hydrogen as energy carrier is technically feasible with all the considered feedstocks and thanks to heat integration, second generation biomass (PSP and barley straws) are competitive with food crops (thick juice). © The Author(s) 2011.