Biomass-assisted autothermal chemical looping hydrogen production from municipal solid waste with integrated power cycles and CO2 purification: Techno-economic assessment

This study proposes a chemical looping hydrogen production (CLHP) plant for co-generating hydrogen and electricity from 50 MW th of municipal solid waste (MSW) with CO 2 capture. The CLHP system employs a three-reactor configuration and typically requires oxygen carrier (OC) splitting for autothermal operation, which limits hydrogen yield. Two cases are examined for CLHP operation through process modeling in Aspen plus: (1) autothermal mode with OC splitting, and (2) a biomass-assisted autothermal mode, where OC splitting is eliminated and 10.62 MW th of biomass is combusted in the air reactor to compensate the thermal deficit. Parametric analysis determined a steam-to-MSW ratio of 0.14 and an OC-to-MSW ratio of 16.8 to ensure complete fuel conversion. Switching to the biomass-assisted mode increased hydrogen production by 30.76%, raised overall energy efficiency from 56.59% to 59.39%, and improved the exergy efficiency from 52.7% to 54.74%. The payback period was reduced from 3.26 to 2.38 years, demonstrating that the biomass-assisted mode offers superior techno-economic performance.