Technoeconomic analysis of supercritical water gasification of canola straw for hydrogen production

Production of hydrogen from renewable sources is gaining popularity to reduce our dependency on non-renewable fossil fuels to meet growing hydrogen demand. However, despite the great prospect of production of hydrogen from sustainable sources such as lignocellulosic biomass via supercritical water gasification (SCWG), it has not been commercialized at a large industrial scale. This is due to the lack of detailed economic analysis of SCWG of lignocellulosic biomass, owing to the complexity of the SCWG process and the heterogeneous nature of biomass. Therefore, to address this knowledge gap, in this study, a detailed technoeconomic analysis (TEA) of a conceptual SCWG pilot having the capacity to process 200 tons/day of canola straw for the production of green hydrogen was conducted. Mass and energy balance of conceptual pilot was performed using Aspen Plus ® simulation by utilizing experimental data and hydrogen yield of 41.62 mmol/g was obtained at optimized reaction conditions of 500 °C, 23 MPa, and 10 wt%. Economic analysis based on calculated mass and energy balance was performed using SuperPro software. Cash flow analysis for capital expenses (CAPEX) of 81 Million USD showed a high internal rate of return (IRR) of 38.9% and an undiscounted net present value (NPV) of 548 million USD. A minimum selling price (MSP) of 3.38 USD/kg H₂ for produced hydrogen was estimated, which is lower than other renewable hydrogen production processes and comparable to non-renewable hydrogen production technologies. A high positive IRR and NPV, while a lower MSP showed that despite having a low technological readiness level (TRL) of 4, SCWG of lignocellulosic biomass is a technically feasible and economically viable process for the production of hydrogen. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis also revealed that capital expenses (CAPEX) and canola straw price had the highest influence on net present value (NPV) and MSP. However, overall NPV and MSP were highly stable to changes in parameters highlighting the robustness of the economic analysis.