Production of high purity hydrogen from biomass/wood by catalyst-enhanced and reaction-integrated supercritical water gasification

氢气（H2）是未来的燃料，是最清洁的燃料，在燃烧过程中零排放空气污染物。它的需求不断增长，特别是在炼油，氨生产和燃料电池行业。目前，H2主要通过在高温（800- 1，000 °C）下通过蒸汽重整转化不可再生的化石燃料（天然气）来生产，生产成本高，约为所用烃成本的5倍。化石燃料是不可再生的、昂贵的，并且化石燃料的使用由于SO2、NOx和温室气体（CO2）的排放而严重破坏全球环境。因此，从生物质（可再生能源）生产H2是非常有前途的，作为一种具有成本效益和环境友好的过程，净CO2排放为零。 该项目旨在开发一种新的催化剂增强和反应集成超临界水气化（CERI-SCWG）工艺，用于在低得多的温度（400-600°C）下从生物质/木材能源资源（包括树皮，木屑，锯末和纸浆厂米尔斯的固体废物）生产高纯度H2。从环境和经济的角度来看，开发这种生产H2的技术对加拿大具有战略意义，因为加拿大拥有世界上最丰富的木材生物质能源资源。在传统的生物质/煤蒸汽气化工艺中，整个反应是高度吸热的并且平衡受限。为了实现碳的高转化率，需要高温（800- 1，200 °C），导致高能耗，因此生产成本高。超临界水（SCW）具有独特的溶剂化和传输性质，特别是具有溶解通常不溶于液态水或蒸汽的材料的能力，这因此有利于气化反应。如果使用SCW代替蒸汽，则可以实现在低得多的温度下将生物质高效转化为氢气。该项目的另一个新奇是通过使用催化剂和CO2吸附剂进一步促进气化反应的动力学和动力学。

Hydrogen (H2), the fuel of the future, is the cleanest fuel with zero emission of air-pollutants during combustion. Its demand is continuously growing especially in the oil refining, ammonia production and fuel cells industries. Currently, H2 is produced mainly from conversion of non-renewable fossil fuels (natural gas) by steam reforming at high temperatures (800-1,000°C) with a high production cost, approximately 5 times the cost of the hydrocarbon used. Fossil fuels are non-renewable, expensive and the use of fossil fuels is seriously damaging to the global environment with emissions of SO2, NOx and the greenhouse gas (CO2). Thus producing H2 from biomass (the renewable energy resource) is very promising, as a cost-effective and environmentally friendly process with zero net CO2 emission.     This project aims at developing a novel Catalyst-Enhanced and Reaction-Integrated Supercritical Water Gasification (CERI-SCWG) process for production of high purity H2 from biomass/wood energy resources (including wood barks, wood chips, sawdust and the solid waste from pulp mills) at much lower temperatures (400-600°C). To develop such a technology to produce H2 would be strategically significant for Canada which has the world's most abundant wood biomass energy resources, from both environmental and economic points of view. In a conventional biomass/coal steam gasification process, the overall reaction is highly endothermic and equilibrium limited. In order to achieve a high conversion of carbon, high temperature (800-1,200°C) is required, leading to high energy-consumption and hence high production cost. Supercritical water (SCW) has unique solvating and transport properties, and in particular has the ability to dissolve materials not normally soluble in liquid water or steam, which thus favor the gasification reactions. If using SCW instead of steam, efficient conversion of biomass to hydrogen under much lower temperature may be achievable. Another novelty of the project is to further boost the gasification reactions kinetically and thermodynamically by employing catalysts and CO2 adsorbents.