PETRONAS and Heriot-Watt explore hydrogen from biomass

The partnership will focus on jointly developing cost-effective technologies for producing hydrogen from biomass in line with both organisations’ aspiration for a carbon-neutral future and circular economy.

Research aims to advance techniques to use thermochemical reactions to produce hydrogen from biomass and other waste materials, as well as exploring solutions to address scalability and storage — main barriers in popularising hydrogen as an alternative energy — to promote adoption globally.

The £1m project is a collaboration under PETRONAS Centre of Excellence in Subsurface Engineering and Energy Transition (PACESET), one of the three Global Technology Centres established by PETRONAS and its academic partners to advance cleaner energy solutions. PACESET is based at Heriot-Watt University, Scotland.

Initially, research will focus on utilising the estimated 4m tonnes of waste and by-products created by distilleries in the UK and the approximately 127m tonnes of agricultural waste generated annually in Malaysia for hydrogen production. The academic team will also explore storage solutions aiming to utilise depleted oil wells for pure hydrogen storage without the need to add natural gas for stability.