Techno-Economic Assessment of Solar-Driven Steam Gasification of Biomass for Large-Scale Hydrogen Production

Solar biomass gasification is an attractive pathway to promote biomass valorization while chemically storing intermittent solar energy into solar fuels. The economic feasibility of a solar gasification process at a large scale for centralized H-2 production was assessed, based on the discounted cash-flow rate of return method to calculate the minimum H-2 production cost. H-2 production costs from solar-only, hybrid and conventional autothermal biomass gasification were evaluated under various economic scenarios. Considering a biomass reference cost of 0.1 euro/kg, and a land cost of 12.9 euro/m(2), H-2 minimum price was estimated at 2.99 euro/kg(H2) and 2.48 euro/kg(H2) for the allothermal and hybrid processes, respectively, against 2.25 euro/kg(H2) in the conventional process. A sensitivity study showed that a 50% reduction in the heliostats and solar tower costs, combined with a lower land cost of below 0.5 euro/m(2), allowed reaching an area of competitiveness where the three processes meet. Furthermore, an increase in the biomass feedstock cost by a factor of 2 to 3 significantly undermined the profitability of the autothermal process, in favor of solar hybrid and solar-only gasification. A comparative study involving other solar and non-solar processes led to conclude on the profitability of fossil-based processes. However, reduced CO2 emissions from the solar process and the application of carbon credits are definitely in favor of solar gasification economics, which could become more competitive. The massive deployment of concentrated solar energy across the world in the coming years can significantly reduce the cost of the solar materials and components (heliostats), and thus further alleviate the financial cost of solar gasification.

Automated summary

The economic feasibility of large-scale solar gasification for centralized H-2 production was evaluated, with solar hybrid and solar-only gasification showing higher competitiveness than the conventional process. A sensitivity study indicated that cost reduction could enable the three processes to reach a competitive range.