New Biomass-to-Hydrogen Policy Briefing

The Supergen Bioenergy Hub has published a new policy briefing on the production of low carbon hydrogen from biomass. This follows on from a stakeholder workshop held earlier this year, the outcomes of which are represented in the paper.

Hydrogen is a versatile energy vector that will play a key role in our future energy system. Although hydrogen doesn’t produce any emissions at the point of use, there are emissions related to its production and so there is an urgent need to deploy new routes to low carbon hydrogen.

This Policy Briefing reviews the different routes for generating hydrogen from biomass and the opportunities and barriers associated with these technologies. It examines the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of biomass-to-hydrogen systems and demonstrates how they can be a route to low carbon hydrogen and, when combined with carbon capture and storage, a source of negative emissions.

Director of Supergen Bioenergy Hub Patricia Thornley;

“This new briefing paper supports the UK Hydrogen Strategy commitment to using hydrogen as an energy source which is essential to the UK’s transition to Net Zero. Working collaboratively with our industrial, academic and policy stakeholders, this timely paper following the close of COP27, combines the science with an insight into the current drivers and challenges mapped across our stakeholder communities for what is needed to take biomass to hydrogen production to the next level.

A tool for policy-makers and those interested in exploring bioenergy and hydrogen, we hope this paper and one-page explainer can contribute to the knowledge exchange on the carbon footprint and sustainability impacts of this key future energy source.”

A simple one-page explainer on biomass-to-hydrogen technologies is also published alongside the briefing. Download here.

Questions about this work should be addressed to j.sparks@aston.ac.uk or supergen-bioenergy@aston.ac.uk.