A review of catalytic hydrogen production processes from biomass

Hydrogen is believed to be critical for the energy and environmental sustainability. Hydrogen is a clean energy carrier which can be used for transportation and stationary power generation. However, hydrogen is not readily available in sufficient quantities and the production cost is still high for transportation purpose. The technical challenges to achieve a stable hydrogen economy include improving process efficiencies, lowering the cost of production and harnessing renewable sources for hydrogen production. Lignocellulosic biomass is one of the most abundant forms of renewable resource available. Currently there are not many commercial technologies able to produce hydrogen from biomass. This review focuses on the available technologies and recent developments in biomass conversion to hydrogen. Hydrogen production from biomass is discussed as a two stage process – in the first stage raw biomass is converted to hydrogen substrate in either gas, liquid or solid phase. In the second stage these substrates are catalytically converted to hydrogen. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved