Techno-economic evaluation of biohydrogen production from wastewater and agricultural waste

Abstract The world is facing serious climate change caused in part by human consumption of fossil fuel. Therefore, developing a clean and environmentally friendly energy resource is necessary given the depletion of fossil fuels, the preservation of the earth's ecosystem and self-preservation of human life. Biological hydrogen production, using dark fermentation is being developed as a promising alternative and renewable energy source, using biomass feedstock. In this study, beverage wastewater and agricultural waste were examined as substrates for dark fermentation to produce clean biohydrogen energy. A reference model including all major process steps was computed using the Aspen Plus software program and model valuations were based on the data obtained in our lab and/or a pilot scale process unit. A beverage company in northern Taipei was the source of wastewater used in the production of biological hydrogen, whereby the use of our hydrogen producing system resulted in a maximum annual profit with an annual return rate of approximately 81% with a working volume of 100 m 3 from wastewater and 30% with a working volume of 400 m 3 from agricultural waste using local price evaluation and approximately 60% with working volume of 200 m 3 from wastewater and 39% with working volume of 300 m 3 from agricultural waste. The optimal sizes of the commercial biohydrogen fermenters of wastewater and agriculture waste were 52.51 and 300.57 m 3 , respectively which were simulated by local price. These results were derived from the Aspen Plus simulation, proving it's economic feasibility.