Biomass pyrolysis: A review on recent advancements and green hydrogen production

Arun Krishna Vuppaladadiyam; Sai Sree Varsha Vuppaladadiyam; Abhishek Awasthi; Abhisek Sahoo; Shazia Rehman; Kamal Kishore Pant; S Murugavelh; Qing Huang; Edward Anthony; Paul Fennel; Sankar Bhattacharya; Shao-Yuan Leu

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2022.128087

Biomass pyrolysis: A review on recent advancements and green hydrogen production

Bioresour Technol. 2022 Nov:364:128087. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2022.128087. Epub 2022 Oct 7.

Affiliations

¹ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong.
² Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia.
³ School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
⁴ Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016, India.
⁵ CO(2) Research and Green Technologies Centre, VIT, Vellore, Tamil Nadu 632014, India.
⁶ College of Ecology & Environment, Hainan University, Haikou, Hainan 570228, China.
⁷ Cranfield University, Cranfield, Bedfordshire MK43 0AL, UK.
⁸ Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, UK.
⁹ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong. Electronic address: shao-yuan.leu@polyu.edu.hk.

PMID: 36216287
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2022.128087

Abstract

Biomass pyrolysis has recently gained increasing attention as a thermochemical conversion process for obtaining value-added products, thanks to the development of cutting-edge, innovative and cost-effective pyrolysis processes. Over time, new and novel pyrolysis techniques have emerged, and these processes can be tuned to maximize the production of high-quality hydrogen. This review examines recent advancements in biomass pyrolysis by classifying them into conventional, advanced and emerging approaches. A comprehensive overview on the recent advancements in biomass pyrolysis, highlighting the current status for industrial applications is presented. Further, the impact of each technique under different approaches on conversion of biomass for hydrogen production is evaluated. Techniques, such as inline catalytic pyrolysis, microwave pyrolysis, etc., can be employed for the sustainable production of hydrogen. Finally, the techno-economic analysis is presented to understand the viability of pyrolysis at large scale. The outlook highlights discernments into future directions, aimed to overcome the current shortcomings.

Keywords: Advanced pyrolysis; Biomass; Conventional pyrolysis; Emerging pyrolysis; Hydrogen production.

Publication types

Review