Evaluation of Sugar Beet Waste in the Production of Hydrogen-Rich Gas

Abstract

Among renewable energy sources, biomass is increasingly gaining tremendous attention due to its feedstock diversity and the way for management. The objective of this work is to explore the potential of the pulp, which is the waste of the sugar factory, as an alternative energy for conventional energy sources through gasification technologies. Dry air was used as an oxidizing agent for the production of producer gas. Gasification experiments were carried out using different operating parameters including various temperatures (650 °C, 750 °C and 850 °C), without catalyst and with alkali catalysts (K 2 CO 3 , Na 2 CO 3 ). The producer gas generated from the gasification process was identified through Micro Gas Chromatography (I¼-GC) system. From the results obtained, the highest hydrogen yield is found to be 5.730 mol H 2 /kg biomass in the absence of a catalyst, at 850 °C with 2 L/h dry air flow rate and 15 min. reaction time. Besides, it also revealed that K 2 CO 3 is more effective than Na 2 CO 3 ,and the maximum hydrogen yield (5.199 mol H 2 /kg biomass) was achieved when K 2 CO 3 used at 650 °C with 2 L/h dry air flow rate and 15 min. reaction time.