The Energy Cluster of the Valencian Community (CECV), the Technological Institute of Energy (ITE), and the Valencian SME Greene have created an innovative project that combines two energy-related topics of utmost importance, such as the production of energy from green hydrogen and the circular economy.
The project is known as SIGEN2H2 – Research centered on the production of hydrogen using gasification techniques from combinations of waste rejection fractions that end up in landfills and simulation models for their improvement.
In addition to being an alternative to its production using fossil fuels through reforming or that produced through water electrolysis, the production of hydrogen from waste through the thermochemical processes of gasification with H2O, pyrolysis, and cracking is also an inexhaustible and renewable source because the human being consumes various products and raw materials in his daily activity and produces the corresponding waste.
Therefore, the thermal pyrolysis of waste mixtures combining CDR (waste-derived fuel, with various plastics) and biomass to produce hydrogen is a creative and practicable option that can provide competitive benefits for energy storage.
The project’s goal has been fundamental investigation into the best procedures for producing hydrogen from waste mixtures handled by gasification processes, which would otherwise be disposed of in a landfill or burned. Pyrolysis and gasification have been integrated with SOEC electrolysis as process technologies as an adjuvant for the supply of oxygen and hydrogen. A simulation model of the particular step in the process for hydrogen generation was made using the operational data from the waste revaluation testing process to obtain H2.
The production of H2 has been maximized with various configurations, optimizing the pyrolysis and gasification conditions to maximize the formation of H2/CO, which will then enter the following processes. Tests have been conducted with waste with various proportions of plastics. A new configuration has been built on a laboratory scale.
Next, simulations were conducted to assess the process of obtaining hydrogen under various operating conditions, such as temperature, water inlet flow, applied current density, pressure, etc. A simulation model of the electrochemical-thermal behavior of the specific hydrogen generation process in a solid oxide electrolyser (SOEC) was developed.
The curves of specific electrical energy consumption, the SOEC electrolyser’s faradic efficiency, the molar fractions of each reactant (water) and product (air, oxygen), and the thermal behavior of the gas stream at the cathode and in the gas diffusing layer have all been assessed from the simulations that were conducted.
This has made it feasible to calculate the ideal pyrolysis temperature for hydrogen generation as well as the cracking temperature, the optimal catalyst to use and the predicted hydrogen production, as well as the precise electrical energy consumption and faradic efficiency. at various operating temperatures and H2O inlet flow values.
This initiative is a component of a call for innovative business groups issued by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, and Tourism with the goal of enhancing the competitiveness of SMEs within the context of the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan.
