Among hydrogen production technologies using renewable
sources, water electrolysis is a well-established process.
The main drawback is the high cost of the electricity
consumed, which represents about 80% of the hydrogen cost
[11e13]. An alternative, more economic process is waste
biomass gasification to produce pure hydrogen [14e16]. In
particular, small scale applications are very interesting
because they follow the low energy density and perishability
of this fuel exploiting the biomass directly in loco avoiding
disposal costs, but efficient and reliable systems have still to
be developed.