Analysis of the energy efficiency of solar aided biomass gasification for pure hydrogen production

This paper presents a simulative analysis of the energy efficiency of solar aided biomass gasification for pure hydrogen production. Solar heat has been considered as available at 250 C in three gasification processes: i) gasification reactor followed by two water gas shift reactors and a pressure swing adsorber; ii) gasification reactor followed by an integrated membrane water gas shift reactor; iii) supercritical gasification reactor followed by two flash separators and a pressure swing adsorber. Simulations are performed with the commercial software Aspen Plus® by considering biomass moisture content and the amount of solar heat as system variables. Results are presented in terms of energy and exergy system efficiency and are discussed and compared with the case of no solar integration.