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Mobile hydrogen powered agricultural waste processing unit
Production, July 14 2010 (The Hydrogen Journal)
- Chemical engineers at Purdue University, Indiana, are developing a mobile unit which could convert agricultural waste into liquid biofuels, powered by hydrogen.
With hydrogen sourced from natural gas, it can develop about twice as much biofuel from the same level of feedstock as is possible using current technologies. If the hydrogen is sourced from biomass rather than natural gas, it can develop 1.5 times as much biofuel as with current technologies.
Because the liquid has a much higher energy density than the agricultural waste, it is cheaper to transport it. It can be taken to a refinery for further processing, before it can be used in internal combustion engines as a fuel.
The idea is that the mobile unit could be driven around the US Midwest, converting agricultural wastes such as wood chips, switch grass, corn stover, rice husks and wheat straw, into liquids.
The process is called fast-hydropyrolysis-hydrodeoxygenation.
The biomass is heated to 900 degrees F (482 Celsius) in under a second, which causes the biomass to break down into a mixture of liquid and light gases. The liquid is removed and the gases are fed back into the reactor.
The hydrogen from the reactor could be derived by steam reforming natural gas, or ultimately by using solar power to split water.
