Low-Temperature Efficient Hydrogen Production from Raw Biomass on the Ni-Mo Catalyst

Hydrogen (H-2) has emerged as an ideal, clean, and versatile energy carrier, which would play an important role in providing a more competitive economy in the future. Owing to the recalcitrance structure of biomass with complex composition, achieving high-efficiency H-2 production from lignocellulosic biomass under mild conditions remains challenging. Here, a catalytic-drive strategy was developed to accomplish the direct transformation of raw biomass to H-2 under relative low-temperature. The nickel-molybdenum catalyst enabled almost complete transformation of different agricultural and forestry wastes, and the H-2 production reached up to 58.6 mmol g(wood)(-1) with a H-2 selectivity of 79.4% at 310 degrees C. Meanwhile, the catalyst displayed the powerful production capability for the bio-hydrogen during 10 cycles. A preliminary life cycle assessment revealed a lower carbon dioxide footprint of this process compared to that of fossil-derived hydrogen. Furthermore, this effective technology was predicted to be an economically competitive production process by the technical economic analysis.