Determination of thermochemical conversion parameters in hydrogen rich gas production from tobacco waste

With the ever-growing population of the world and technological developments, the need for energy is also increasing. Since the use of fossil fuels causes major damage to the environment and the human health, renewable energy sources as an alternative to these gains importance. Hydrogen is a clean, environmentally friendly energy carrier and it can be produced from renewable energy sources such as biomass. One of these biomasses is tobacco waste. 7,000 to 10,000 tons of tobacco waste gets produced annualy in Turkey. This waste can be converted into hydrogen-rich product gas through gasification. In this thesis, hydrogen production by gasification of tobacco waste in an updraft gasifier using air as the gasifiying medium was studied. Effect of reaction time (10, 15 20 min), reaction temperature (650, 750, 850 oC), catalyst ratio (0, 20, 40 w/w), catalyst type (Na2CO3, CaCO3, CaO, Ca(OH)2, NaOH, K2CO3, Ni/Al2O3) air feed rate (2, 3, 4 L/h), particle size of tobacco waste (56 μm, 374 μm and untreated) and effect of drying on the yields of solid, liquid and gaseous products were investigated. Highest hydrogen yield (5,90 moles H2/kg biomass) was obtained with a particle size of 56 μm, 20% w/w Na2CO3, 3 L/h air feed rate and 15 min. reaction time. Hydrogen in the obtained gas product can be purified or gas product can be used in generating heat or electricity.