Hydrogen from Biomass: Distributed Production by Steam Reforming of Biomass Pyrolysis Oil

Conference · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2006

OSTI ID:945952

Czernik, S; Evans, R; French, R

Thermo-conversion of biomass is one of the leading near-term options for renewable production of hydrogen and has the potential to provide a significant fraction of transportation fuel required in the future. We propose a two-step process that starts with fast pyrolysis of biomass, which generates high yields of a liquid product, bio-oil, followed by catalytic steam reforming of bio-oil to produce hydrogen. A major advantage of such a concept results from the fact that bio-oil is much easier and less expensive to transport than either biomass or hydrogen. Therefore, the processing of biomass and the production of hydrogen can be performed at separate locations, optimized with respect to feedstock supply and to hydrogen distribution infrastructure. This approach makes the process very well suited for both centralized and distributed hydrogen production. This work demonstrates reforming of bio-oil in a bench-scale fluidized bed system and provides hydrogen yields obtained using several commercial and custom-made catalysts.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO.
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-99GO10337
• OSTI ID: 945952
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

08 HYDROGEN
09 BIOMASS FUELS
37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
AVAILABILITY
BIOMASS
BioPower
CATALYSTS
DISTRIBUTION
FLUIDIZED BEDS
HYDROGEN
HYDROGEN PRODUCTION
Hydrogen
PROCESSING
PRODUCTION
PYROLYSIS
STEAM
TRANSPORT