Photocatalytic reforming of biomass-derived feedstock to hydrogen production.

Worldwide energy and environmental issues are forcing researchers to develop a green approach to produce a clean energy. However, traditional methods in reforming of fossil fuels to produce hydrogen (H2) are causing CO2 emission. Hydrogen is therefore an indirect greenhouse gas with a global warming potential. Hydrogen with high specific energy density can be considered as an efficient energy carrier as compared to fossil fuels. But hydrogen production from water splitting reaction has low efficiency, which limits its generation by green approach. For addressing this issue, different chemical hole scavengers have been applied, which is causing further environmental and economic problems. By using biomass as a hole scavenger to improve rate of H2 generation, environmental pollution can be controlled and value-added chemicals can be produced via its oxidation reaction. In this mini review, the effect of different influencing factors such as type of biomass feedstock, irradiation wavelength and intensity, and nature and function of applied photocatalysts in particular their structural/dimensional on the biomass photocatalytic reforming process to produce clean hydrogen will be discussed. Moreover, the fundamental principles of this process including kinetics and mechanism of the reaction will be also addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]