Production of biohydrogen from gasification of waste fuels: Pilot plant results and deployment prospects.

Hydrogen is seen as a key element of the future energy mix because it does not generate greenhouse gas emissions at the point of use. Understanding the technologies that can generate low carbon hydrogen is essential in planning the development of future gas networks and energy generation via fuel cells. One promising approach is hydrogen production by gasification of waste, referred to as biohydrogen. This paper summarises work undertaken to design a commercial Waste-to-Hydrogen (WtH2) plant, which includes an assessment of future markets for hydrogen, the identification of an appropriate scale for the plants, and development of specifications for process design and output streams. An experimental programme was undertaken to demonstrate bioH2 production from refuse derived fuel (RDF) at pilot scale and provided experimental data to underpin commercial designs. On this basis, a reference design for small commercial plants was developed for bioH2 production for heating and transport utilisation. A preliminary carbon assessment shows that carbon savings for biohydrogen in a commercial scale are more than four times greater than alternative technologies.