Measurement of Associated Emissions for Wood Waste to Hydrogen Production Process

Hydrogen has become a very important resource in the search for renewable energy solutions. This is due to its high energy yield and environmentally friendly aspects. When burned, hydrogen produces no carbon emissions and thus can replace natural gas in various applications. However, methods of obtaining hydrogen have become quite difficult and need further investigation. One of these methods is gasification of wood waste. Gasification is the process of turning biomass into a mixture of combustible and non-combustible gas. The gasification of wood waste can be viewed as an excellent method of obtaining renewable (or Green) hydrogen gas. We are using the All Power Labs 30kW PP30 Gasifier to produce a mixture of products. In the gasifier, we use wood waste and turn it into a mixture of gasses along with tar, char and ash. The gaseous component consists of a variety of gasses but primarily, hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. In the power production mode, the gas mixture enters the internal combustion engine to produce electricity. To assess the feasibility of this gasifier to produce hydrogen, it is crucial to know the emissions from the process. The process is considered carbon negative because it collects the char and it may be used as fertilizer for plant productivity, soil biological activity, water retention, pest management and mineral uptake in plants. A downdraft gasifier is used to produce all the aforementioned products. The emissions measurements taken from the gasifier take into account several properties of the wood waste feed such as the moisture content of wood chips and the size of wood chips. These will be helpful for quantifying the emissions data for future testing. In future experiments, we plan to remove the internal combustion engine, add a water-gas-shift unit to maximize hydrogen output.