Hydrothermal gasification of coal/biomass mixtures

The issue of hydrogen production by gasification of renewable resources such as biomass with coal has an important place in sustainable hydrogen production, considering fossil fuel reserves. In this study, Çan coal with high ash and sulfur content and biomass (sorghum) were gasified by hydrothermal method. Experimental conditions such as coal/biomass ratio, amount of water, time, catalyst, co–solvent and parameters creating synergistic effects were determined for high yield hydrogen production. Hydrogen-rich gas was obtained from experiments performed with catalyst and co–solvents for 30 minutes using a temperature of 500ºC, 70,0 mL of water, and a coal/biomass mixture containing 25% coal. In the experiments where the catalyst combination (K2CO3/CaO) and co-solvents (THF and NMP) were used together, the total gas amount and hydrogen percentage formed were quite high.