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

Hydrogen (H2) 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 H2 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 H2 under relative low-temperature. The nickel–molybdenum catalyst enabled almost complete transformation of different agricultural and forestry wastes, and the H2 production reached up to 58.6 mmol gwood–1 with a H2 selectivity of 79.4% at 310 °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.