2019 Food-Energy-Water Nexus
Keynote Talk: BioEnergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS): H2 production from food wastes with suppressed COx formation
Author
Park, A. H. - Presenter, Columbia University
Biomass is considered a carbon-neutral energy source and can even be carbon-negative if combined with a carbon capture and storage (CCS) scheme. The main challenges with bioenergy include the limited availability of biomass compared to fossil resources and the change in land use leading to net CO2 emissions. Food wastes and seaweeds offer an advantageous alternative biomass for biofuel production. They are widely available in many parts of the world. Thus, the use of food wastes, seaweed or algae growing in seawater would allow many countries with limited land and fresh water to produce bioenergy. Unfortunately, the bioenergy technologies that can convert wet and salty biomass such as food wastes and seaweed are very limited, representing a significant untapped opportunity for biofuels. The alkaline thermal treatment of biomass provides a unique reaction pathway to produce H2 while in-situ capturing CO2. By directly reacting wet and salty biomass with alkaline metal hydroxide, high purity H2 is generated while capturing and storing CO2 as solid carbonate.