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Open Access | Published on October 5, 2025

Modelling of Hydrogen Generation from Woody Biomass in a Novel Modular Downdraft Gasifier–WGS–PSA System

Kostopoulou Nikoletta
Pappa Georgia
Voutsas Konstantinos
Liakos Dimitrios
Prinos Nikolaos
Vakalis Stergios
Voutsas Epameinondas
Abstract

An advanced model was developed in Aspen Plus to simulate and optimize hydrogen-rich syngas production from a PP30-scale downdraft biomass gasifier integrated with Water-Gas-Shift (WGS) and pressure-swing adsorption (PSA). The adiabatic model combines equilibrium RGibbs blocks with corrective RStoic char–gas reactions and was validated against four independent experiments, predicting H₂ and CO within ± 1 % error. Sensitivity analysis identified an optimum “window” of T_pyrol at700 °C, T_gas at 900 °C, and equivalence ratio of 0.25, which double H₂ molar fraction to 40 wt % after a two-stage WGS system (S/C = 3, T_LT = 200 °C). Replacing air with pure O₂ as the gasifying agent effectively eliminates N₂ dilution, increasing H₂ concentration to 59 wt % raising the LHV from 4.5 to 6.7 MJ Nm⁻³. A dual-column, four-step PSA (P_ads = 9.8 bar) delivers 98 % purity at 56 % recovery, while halving the purge stream improves recovery to 64 % with negligible purity loss. The combined interventions provide a realistic pathway for decentralized, biomass-derived clean hydrogen production, which competes with electrolysis on energy density and cleanup requirements. Future work will automate methane correction within Aspen and extend the flowsheet for full techno-economic assessment.

Keywords
Biomass gasification, Downdraft gasifier, Hydrogen production, Aspen Plus modelling, Water-Gas Shift