Hydrogen production from woody biomass gasification: a techno-economic analysis

Reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are necessary to slow global warming and decrease the likelihood of irreversible climate scenarios. There is thus an urgent need for low-emissions fuels. This study conducted a techno-economic analysis of two different industrial plant concepts for producing hydrogen from woody biomass. One was a large-scale centralized 60 MWH2 option using dual fluidized bed gasification with CO2 removal. The other was a small-scale decentralized 1 MWH2 option using fixed-bed gasification without CO2 removal. Mass and energy balances were calculated by the process simulation software IPSEpro. Key performance indicators, including technical, economic, and environmental parameters, were derived. Overall energy efficiencies of 64.2 and 59.5% and hydrogen yields of 87 and 68 gH2 kg-1BM.db were determined for hydrogen production by dual fluidized bed and fixed-bed gasification, respectively. The levelized costs of hydrogen amounted to 5.6 and 15.0 <euro>2022 kg-1H2 and agreed quite well with values from the literature. Flexible and decentralized heat, electricity, and hydrogen production based on fixed-bed gasification within a multiproduct plant were also evaluated. The results show that the multiproduct plant could be economically feasible if at least 63% of the annual operating hours were dedicated to hydrogen production, and assuming a hydrogen selling price of 17.5 <euro>2022 kg-1H2 in Austria. In conclusion, both of the processes that were evaluated are conceivable technologies for the transition of the energy system towards renewable energy sources from a technical and economic point of view, although small-scale hydrogen production is considerably more expensive.