(154i) Blue Hydrogen Production from Waste Tire: Technical and Economic Assessment

According to the recent research, the annual production of new car tires is over 1.6 billion which in turn generates more than 1 billion waste-tires annually (Mohajerani, A., et al. 2020). Waste tires are collected in huge quantities and transported to either landfill sites or stockpiled which accounts for more than 4 billion tires worldwide (Subramanian et al. 2020). Waste tires contains rubber which is not easily biodegradable even after the long period of time and reserves the tendency to leach toxic chemicals (Labaki, M. and Jeguirim, M. 2017) . The waste management data of US shows that 35% of the waste tires are recycled, 50% is converted to tire derived fuel (TDF) and 15% is left to decompose in the landfills or burned (Hasan, A. and I. Dincer. 2019). Thermochemical recycling of waste tires to produce energy and fuels is one of the attractive options to reduce waste while meeting energy needs. Hydrogen is a clean fuel that could be produced via gasification of waste tires followed by syngas processing. In this study, two process models are developed to evaluate the hydrogen production potential from waste tires. Case 1 involves three main processes which include the steam gasification of waste tires, water gas shift, and acid gas removal to produce the hydrogen. On the other hand, case 2 represents the integration of waste tire gasification with the natural gas reforming technology where the energy from the gasifier-derived syngas can be used to provide sufficient heat to the steam methane reforming (SMR) unit. Both models are also analyzed in terms of syngas compositions, hydrogen production rate, hydrogen purity, overall process efficiency, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and hydrogen production cost. The results revealed that case 2 produced the syngas with 55% higher heating value, 28% higher hydrogen production, 7% higher Hâ‚‚ purity, and 26% lower CO₂ emissions compared to case 1. The results revealed that case 2 offers 10.4% higher process efficiency and 28.5% lower H₂ production costs compared to case 1. Overall, case 2 design has been found to be more efficient and cost-effective compared to the base case design.

Keywords: Gasification, Reforming, Waste Tire, Hâ‚‚ Production.

References

1. Hasan, A. and I. Dincer, 2019. Comparative assessment of various gasification fuels with waste tires for hydrogen production. International Journal Of Hydrogen Energy, 44(34): p. 18818-18826.

2. Labaki, M. and M. Jeguirim, 2017. Thermochemical conversion of waste tyres—a review. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 24(11): p. 9962-9992.

3. Mohajerani, A., et al., 2020. Recycling waste rubber tyres in construction materials and associated environmental considerations: A review. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 155, p. 104679.

4. Subramanian, A.S., Gundersen, T. and Adams II, T.A., 2020. Technoeconomic analysis of a waste tire to liquefied synthetic natural gas (SNG) energy system. Energy, 205, p.117830.