Research Projects

A vital necessity for human existence is food. But unfortunately, much of the food we eat is lost or wasted in transit from the point of harvest to the end user. In a world where people are dying from hunger, 1/3rd of all food produced is thrown away every year. When food waste is left to rot in our landfills, it subsequently releases methane, a powerful greenhouse gas 25 times stronger than carbon dioxide. On other hand, In India, there is still a lack of electrical connection in rural areas and agricultural land in hilly and forested areas. This dual problem can be solved by waste-to-energy system deployment by palletization of dry kitchen waste with waste biomass. Moreover, the kitchen waste material can be effectively used in gasification system to generate electric power. In the gasification the composition of the producer gas plays significant role in calorific value possession. Today, the Hydrogen generation from the renewable sources become very necessary for the fuel cell and hydrogen vehicle. Therefor, if its from biomass route, it requires initial level of enrichment of Hydrogen in the producer gas. Therefore in this project, the aim is to enhance the hydrogen content in the producer gas by oxy-steam-catalytic based gasification. Accordingly, this project proposes the integration of previous DST project awarded, where we have already developed the multifunctional gasification system with catalytic integrated. However, there is lacking to further improve the Hydrogen concentration, so, it requires to operate on oxy-steam-catalytic based gasification. In view of this, the expected outcome will be high-quality pellets and producer gas with high concentrated H2 gas value and lower concentration of Tar. Consequently, the higher molecular H2 yield value can be obtained while further separation techniques will be conducted. On other hand, a gasifier will offer efficient IC engine-based power generation with a better substitution for conventional Fuel. Thus, it will be very suitable for power generation systems to run small-scale industries and agricultural activities.

Kitchen waste utilization, Oxy-steam gasification, Catalytic imbedded gasifier, Hydrogen enrichment, PSA assisted O2 separation