Sustainable hydrogen production options from food wastes

WOS: 000436225600011In this study, two thermochemical processes, namely steam gasification and supercritical water gasification (SCWG), were comparatively studied to produce hydrogen from food wastes containing about 90% water. The SCWG experiments were performed at 400 and 450 degrees C in presence of catalyst (Trona, K2CO3 and seaweed ash). The maximum hydrogen yield was obtained at 450 degrees C in presence of K2CO3 catalyst. In second process, hydrothermal carbonization was used to convert food wastes into a high-quality solid fuel (hydrochar) that was further gasified in a dual-bed reactor in presence of steam. The steam gasification of hydrochar was carried out with and without catalysts (iron-ceria catalyst and dolomite). The maximum hydrogen yield obtained from steam gasification process was 28.08 mmol/g dry waste, about 7.7 times of that from SCWG. This study proposed a new concept for hydrogen production from wet biomass, combination of hydrothermal carbonization following steam gasification. (C) 2018 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.TUBITAK-MAGTurkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu (TUBITAK) [215-M-314]; Ege UniversityEge University [16-FEN-046]The financial support from TUBITAK-MAG under contract 215-M-314 and Ege University under contract 16-FEN-046 are gratefully acknowledged