Process for hydrogen production via integrated processing of landfill gas and biomass

A system for producing hydrogen by the integrated closed-loop processing of landfill gas and biomass feedstocks that comprises:

• a) a first input for landfill gas feedstock containing moisture into a first pipeline;
• b) a second input for biomass feedstock that is transported to a gasifier;
• c) a vessel to remove moisture from the landfill gas of a);
• before the reduced-moisture landfill gas is transported in the first pipeline to a scrubber;
• d) the scrubber of c) uses carbon product as a purifying agent until the carbon product is spent, the scrubber has a first inlet and second inlet, a first outlet and a second outlet;
• e) the gasifier reduces the biomass of b) to a producer gas and a biomass-derived carbon product;
• e) the producer gas of d) is transported to the first pipeline containing the reduced-moisture landfill gas so that the producer gas and reduced-moisture landfill gas travel as a mixture to the first inlet of the scrubber and the biomass-derived carbon product of d) is transported in a transporter to the second inlet of the scrubber for use as the gas purifying agent;
• f) the scrubber cleans the producer gas of d) and the reduced-moisture landfill gas of c) until the producer gas and reduced-moisture landfill gas are free of a plurality of undesirable impurities and produce an outgoing stream of a purified gas mixture containing hydrogen (H2), methane (CH4), carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2);
• g) the first pipeline transports the outgoing stream of the purified mixture of hydrogen (H2), methane (CH4), carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2) to a reformer where the outgoing stream is processed to synthesis gas which is a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide (H2 and CO) in the presence of steam;
• h) a heat exchanger in the first pipeline cools the synthesis gas of g) as the synthesis gas exits the reformer into the first pipeline that transports the cooled synthesis gas to a water gas shift reactor where the carbon monoxide is converted to a mixture of carbon dioxide and hydrogen (H2);
• i) the first pipeline transports the mixture of carbon dioxide and hydrogen of h) to a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) unit with a first outlet and a second outlet for a final gas separation and purification stage;
• and
• j) a high purity hydrogen gas is collected from the first outlet of the PSA unit and an off-gas stream is transported from the second outlet of the PSA unit for use as a fuel in the reformer burner.

A system for producing hydrogen by the integrated closed-loop processing of landfill gas and biomass feedstocks that comprises:

• a) a first input for landfill gas feedstock containing moisture;
• b) a second input for a solid biomass feedstock that is transported to a gasifier and reduced to a producer gas and a biomass-derived carbon product;
• c) a vessel to remove moisture from the landfill gas of a);
• d) a pipeline that combines the producer gas of b) with the reduced-moisture landfill gas of c) to form a gaseous mixture that is fed to a scrubber;
• e) a first inlet of the scrubber receives the gaseous mixture of d) and the biomass-derived carbon product of b) is transported to a second inlet of the scrubber for use as the gas purifying agent;
• f) a first outlet of the scrubber releases a scrubbed gaseous mixture of d) that is free of a plurality of undesirable impurities and is an outgoing stream of a purified gas mixture containing predominantly hydrogen (H2), methane (CH4), carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2);
• g) a second outlet of the scrubber releases a spent biocarbon product for use as a biocarbon soil enhancer;
• h) a reformer receives the outgoing stream of a purified gas mixture of f) and processes the purified gas mixture to synthesis gas in the presence of steam;
• i) a water gas shift reactor receives the synthesis gas of h) where the carbon monoxide is converted to a mixture of carbon dioxide and hydrogen (H2);
• j) a pressure swing adsorption (PSA) unit with a first outlet and a second outlet receives the mixture of carbon dioxide and hydrogen for a final gas separation and purification stage;
• and
• k) a high purity hydrogen gas is collected from the first outlet of the PSA unit and an off-gas stream is transported from the second outlet of the PSA unit to the reformer for use as a fuel in the reformer burner.