Mini Review of Catalytic Reactive Flash Volatilization of Biomass forHydrogen-Rich Syngas Production

While the global energy demand is estimated to increase, the energy supply has totransition from fossil fuels to renewable energy to reduce CO2emissions to avoid the consequencesof climate change. Hydrogen produced from renewable resources can play a vital role as asustainable energy carrier. Among several routes of H2production, thermochemical conversion ofbiomass into hydrogen has been gaining much interest. Catalytic steam gasification via reactiveflashvolatilization (RFV) technology is a proven method for producing tar-free hydrogen-rich syngasfrom a range of biomass at relatively low temperatures (<900 degrees C) in a single-step millisecondresidence time reactor. Here, we review the recent literature and evaluate the economic prospects ofcatalytic RFV gasification of different biomass. The performance of RFV has been compared to othertypes of gasification technologies based on the data available in the published literature. Parametersaffecting RFV performance include the temperature, steam and oxygen supply, catalyst, and biomasstype. A higher temperature and steam/carbon ratio was favorable for the hydrogen yield, whereasthe optimal carbon/oxygen ratio was required to achieve a high quality and yield of syngas. Ni-basedcatalysts were found to be excellent for steam reforming of tar, C2compounds and methane; and water gas shift reactions, regardlessof the biomass used. Techno-economic factors affecting the cost of hydrogen were process efficiency, cost of biomass, scale of theplant, carbon tax, capital cost, and location-specific factors, such as cost of labor and utility.