The development of reliable, efficient and low cost renewable
energy power plants is a possible solution of the today environmental,
social and economic issues [1]. Among renewables
biomass can represent a useful alternative [2e4]. Hydrogen, as
energy vector, is one of the most promising options because it,
differently from electricity, can cover all the energy needs (e.g.
storage, extra gravitational propulsion); furthermore it is
“clean” and it allows a distributed production from local resources
[5e8]. However it is still produced especially from fossil fuels (Fig. 1) [9], in particular by natural gas steam
reforming.
The Steam Methane Reforming (SMR) is a catalytic process
that involves a reaction between natural gas or other light
hydrocarbons and steam. In a conventional SMR methane
reacts with steam to form hydrogen and carbon monoxide.
The reaction is typically carried out at temperature of
800e1000 C and a pressure of 14e20 bar. The effluent gas
from the reformer contains about 76% H2 (mol%), 13% CH4,
12% CO and 10% CO2 on a dry basis [10].