Hydrogen production technologies-A Malaysian prospect

Khan, Z., Yusup, S. and Ahmad, M. M. (2013) Hydrogen production technologies-A Malaysian prospect. In: 15th Asian Chemcial Congress (ACC), Resorts World Sentosa, Singapore, 20-23 Aug 2013,

Abstract

Hydrogen economy has been promoted due to large number of hydrogen applications in petroleum and chemical sectors such as upgrading of crude oil and synthesizing of methanol and ammonia. Besides this, hydrogen has been upgraded as an alternative to fossil fuel products due to its environmental friendly, high energy capacity and potentially high efficient processes such as in fuel cell application. As a country that is rich with natural resources and with the aims to be a developed country in 2020, Malaysia is currently intensified its renewable energy activities. Hydrogen production technologies in Malaysia include non-renewable e.g. steam methane reforming (SMR) and renewable resources related to biomass processes e.g. gasification, pyrolysis, supercritical water gasification, biological water gas shift reaction, fermentation and water electrolysis e.g. using solar and wind energy [1]. Although it is undeniable that SMR is still the most feasible commercial process for hydrogen production, the consequences of limited amount of fossil fuel reserves all over the world emphasizes on finding alternative sources for hydrogen production. Biomass is one of most promising source among renewable resources to supplement hydrogen from renewable sources [2]. As a tropical country involving in agricultural sectors, Malaysia has a variety of biomass residues produced from oil palm, rice, sugarcane, wood industry and municipal solid waste. Being a largest producer and exporter of oil palm in 2009, Malaysia’s oil palm industry produced huge amount of biomass wastes that contribute about 85.5% of total biomass available in the country [3]. With the vast amount of biomass available in the country, the possibilities of hydrogen production from these sources are tremendous. Among the processes from renewable biomass, biomass steam gasification showed a lot of potential towards renewable hydrogen production. The introduction of CO2 adsorption in the process makes it more viable for commercial application. Recent development in the subject area showed that the hydrogen content in the product gas is almost double with in-situ CO2 adsorption in biomass steam gasification [4]. For a case study, hydrogen production from pilot scale integrated catalytic adsorbent (ICA) steam gasification utilizing palm kernel shell as a feedstock is presented. Initially, the effect of temperature on hydrogen yield and composition is investigated at steam to biomass ratio of 2.0, adsorbent to biomass ratio of 1.0 and catalyst to biomass of 0.1. The hydrogen yield is significantly increased from 31 g /kg biomass to 151 g/kg biomass by varying the temperature from 600°C to 750°C, respectively. Conversely, hydrogen composition of 82 vol% at medium temperature of 675°C is detected. No CO2 content is observed at temperature of 600°C and 675°C in the product gas which showed high activity of adsorbent (CaO) in the said temperature range. However, significant amount of CO2 is found at temperature 750°C with lowest hydrogen composition of 68 vol% in the product gas. This may be due to the reverse carbonation reaction present at high temperature (750°C). The presence of the reverse carbonation reaction in biomass steam gasification is supported by other researchers [4-5]. To sustain the journey towards clean hydrogen energy, it is necessary to search for novel resources and processes to meet the continuous increasing hydrogen demand. This will help to lessen the dependency on fossil fuel. References [1] Z. Khan, S. Yusup, M. M. Ahmad, V. S. Chok, Y. Uemura, and K. M. Sabil, Int. J. Eng. Technol., 2010,10,111-118. [2] J. S. Cannon, Renew. Energy Policy Project, 1997, 17. [3] S. H. Shuit, K. T. Tan, K. T. Lee, and A. H. Kamaruddin, Energy, 2009, 34,1225-1235. [4] C. Pfeifer, B. Puchner, and H. Hofbauer, Int. J. Chem. Reactor Eng., 2008, 5. [5] G. Xu, T. Murakami, T. Suda, S. Kusama, and T. Fujimori, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 2005, 44, 5864-5868.

• Item Type: Conference Proceedings
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Khan, Dr Zakir
• Authors: Khan, Z., Yusup, S., and Ahmad, M. M.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Systems Power and Energy