Techno-economic analysis of hydrogen and solid carbon production from biofuels

The importance of hydrogen is continuously growing in the global market. In sectors like refining, ammonia and methanol production its role is central and sustainable alternatives to classical steam reforming of natural gas need to be assessed. This thesis aims to explore the techno-economic feasibility of large pilot plants for hydrogen production starting from sustainable gases, specifically biogas and biomethane, covering both pyrolysis and reforming. The design of the plants and their simulation have been performed on ASPEN Plus, as well as the energy analysis of each of the designed processes. Subsequently, also the economic feasibility of the plants has been assessed by retrieving the Levelized Cost of Hydrogen produced. The results obtained show that technical feasibility is achieved for all processes, while the economic analysis highlights that low-carbon hydrogen production routes exhibit higher costs to their traditional fossil-based counterparts, with a gap, in the best case, quantified in 0.25 €/kgH2. Nevertheless, their competitiveness on the long term is expected to rise substantially, along with their industrial development.