Utilization of paper mill sludge as a sustainable source of hydrogen production

Abstract

This study presents the utilization of paper mill sludge (PMS) as biomass for producing hydrogen from steam gasification. PMS is a wet waste and its utilization for hydrogen production would give a new direction to its management. In this work, the performance of PMS during steam gasification was studied by varying the steam flow rate (SFR) and by determining the various characteristics of product gas such as syngas yield, syngas composition, and its high heating value (HHV). The SFR was varied from 0.25 mL/min to 1.0 mL/min depending upon the steam to biomass ratio. The performance parameter, cold gas efficiency (CGE) was also determined to evaluate the performance of PMS during steam gasification and the highest CGE was found to be around 96% at optimal SFR. The optimal SFR was found to be 0.75 mL/min and the syngas characteristics at optimal SFR were found to be 1.4 m³/Kg (syngas yield), 58% (hydrogen fraction in syngas), and 11.92 MJ/m³ (HHV). The feasibility of the PMS management and its utilization using steam gasification methods can further be increased by using renewable sources of energy for heating the gasifier.

Keywords:

• Paper mill sludge
• hydrogen
• steam gasification
• steam flow rate
• syngas yield
• high heating value