Thermo-chemical routes for hydrogen rich gas from biomass: A review

As the demand of energy is growing faster due to society up gradation and rapid industrialization, renewable energy sources hold promise for the future energy resources in developed and third world developing countries. In contrast to conventional energy sources, non-conventional energy sources like wind, sunlight, water, and biomass have been used as renewable energy sources since ancient times. Worldwide research and energy policy are focusing towards the hydrogen economy. Hydrogen is considered as a forecast to become major source of energy in the future. Hydrogen production plays ail important role ill development of economy. As biomass is abundant, clean and renewable, production of hydrogen from biomass is one of the promising approaches. Present review article focuses to highlight various thermo-chemical processes for conversion of biomass into hydrogen rich gas. Effect of various parameters such as temperature, catalyst activity and biomass/steam ratio has been discussed in view of gas yield pattern ill addition to physicochemical properties of hydrogen and its uses. (c) 2007 Published by Elsevier Ltd.