Green Hydrogen from Biomass in Kenya: Geospatial Feed-stock Mapping and Decentralized Energy Integration

Leila Bekrit , Auwal Ahmad Musa , Friday Adejoho Ogwu

As countries race to decarbonize, green hydrogen has emerged as a crucial clean energy transformation vehicle. In Sub-Saharan Africa, sufficient biomass resource potential exists to become an actual feedstock for decentralised hydrogen production, but under-explored are the spatial mismatches between resource occurrences and infrastructure systems. The paper conducts a geospatial assessment of forestry biomass, crop residues, and livestock waste for green hydrogen production as feed stocks in Kenya's 47 counties. From high-resolution land cover and productivity maps, we developed feed stock distribution maps, estimated hydrogen yield potentials from thermochemical conversion models, and contrasted regional conversion efficiencies by Sankey flow analysis. Our findings indicate that although shrublands cover the majority of Kenya (~283,000 km²), forests and agricultural land are of higher quality feed-stocks with up to 400,000 tonnes/year hydrogen potentials at technical maximum scenarios. Gasification was the best conversion pathway, with high efficiency (up to 70%) and confluence with Kenya's decentralized energy needs. Scenario modeling highlighted drastic logistical constraints: in the rosy 20% utilization case, ~70,000 tonnes of hydrogen would be economically produced by 2035. Environmental co-benefits of 0.9 MtCO₂e per annum in net emission reductions and biochar-enhanced soil productivity enhance hydrogen's alignment with Kenya's just transition goals. The findings inform hydrogen plans segmented by location and highlight how biomass resource mapping can integrate national hydrogen roadmaps within emerging economies.