Energy and environmental assessment of hydrogen from biomass sources: Challenges and perspectives

Hydrogen is considered as one of the pillars of the European decarbonisation strategy, boosting a novel concept of the energy system in line with the EU's commitment to achieve clean energy transition and reach the European Green Deal carbon neutrality goals by 2050. Hydrogen from biomass sources can significantly contribute to integrate the renewable hydrogen supply through electrolysis at large-scale production. Specifically, it can cover the non-continuous production of green hydrogen coming from solar and wind energy, to offer an alternative solution to such industrial sectors necessitating of stable supply. Biomass-derived hydrogen can be produced either from thermochemical pathways (i.e., pyrolysis, liquefaction, and gasification) or from biological routes (i.e., direct or indirect-biophotolysis, biological water–gas shift reaction, photo- and dark-fermentation). The paper reviews several production pathways to produce hydrogen from biomass or biomass-derived sources (biogas, liquid bio-intermediates, sugars) and provides an exhaustive review of the most promising technologies towards commercialisation. While some pathways are still at low technology readiness level, others such as the steam bio-methane reforming and biomass gasification are ready for an immediate market uptake. The various production pathways are evaluated in terms of energy and environmental performances, highlighting the limits and barriers of the available LCA studies. The paper shows that hydrogen production technologies from biomass appears today to be an interesting option, almost ready to constitute a complementing option to electrolysis.