Sorption enhanced steam reforming (SESR): a direct route towards efficient hydrogen production from biomass-derived compounds

OVERVIEW: Efficient conversion of biomass to hydrogen is imperative in order to realize sustainable hydrogen production. Sorption enhanced steam reforming (SESR) is an emerging technology to produce high purity hydrogen directly from biomass-derived oxygenates, by integrating steam reforming, water-gas shift and CO2 separation in one-stage. Factors such as simplicity of the hydrogen production process, flexibility in feedstock, high hydrogen yield and low cost, make the SESR process attractive for biomass conversion to fuels. IMPACT: Recent work has demonstrated that SESR of biomass-derived oxygenates has greater potential than conventional steam reforming for hydrogen production. The flexibility of SESR processes resides in the diversity of feedstocks, which can be gases (e.g. biogas, syngas from biomass gasification), liquids (e.g. bioethanol, glycerol, sugars or liquid wastes from biomass processing) and solids (e.g. lignocellulosic biomass). SESR can be developed to realize a simple biomass conversion process but with high energy efficiency. APPLICATIONS: Hydrogen production by SESR of biomass-derived compounds can be integrated into existing oil refineries and bio-refineries for hydrotreating processing, making the production of gasoline and diesel greener. Moreover, hydrogen from SESR can be directly fed to fuel cells for power generation. Copyright (c) 2012 Society of Chemical Industry