(501f) Techno-Economic and Life Cycle Analysis of BioH2 Production from Waste Streams through Process Integration

Transportation sector and industrial sector are the two leading sectors in greenhouse gas emission. Low carbon hydrogen is of great interest to decarbonize both sectors by replacing fossil-based fuels and feedstocks. As hydrogen generated from electrolysis requires extensive electricity and fresh water, bioH2 generated from waste streams can provide particular advantage with lower electricity consumption. Moreover, contrary to electrolysis that consumes fresh water, bioH₂ production treats wastewater and generates fresh water. Relative to biomass, generating bioH₂ from waste streams can reduce the levelized production cost with revenues from wastewater treatment fee or solid waste tipping fee. This study explored the potential of bioH₂ production from industrial bio-waste streams namely, cheese whey (CW) and solid food waste (SFW) through dark fermentation (DF) and microbial electrolysis (MEC) integration. This integrated system also generates high purity CO₂ from both DF and MEC, respectively. Capture and storing the by-product CO₂ can lead to net CO₂ sequestration, resulting in a life cycle carbon intensity of around -67.2 g CO_2e/MJ H₂ produced, which makes the pathway potentially qualified under 45V tax credit. Techno-economic analysis results showed that CW can produce bioH₂ with cost ranging between $3.5 to -$2.2/ kg H₂ by considering 45V tax credit and revenues of wastewater treatment fee that varies with region. On the other hand, SFW as feedstock can lead to bioH2 cost of $6.9/kg H₂, considering 45V credit and tipping fee.