Hydrogen from banana peel?

De l'hydrogène à partir de peaux de bananes ?
Scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne have developed a new method to extract hydrogen and biomass from dried organisms. They got the most inspiring results with banana peels.

While the European Commission is still working on the future Euro 7 standard, it wants to open up more space for biofuels and synthetic fuels, which researchers around the world hope will increase the energy resources to be exploited in the movement. . On July 20, the company will develop a new proposal, which this time will deal with various pollutants, and no longer CO2 emissions. All types of waste are always high at the center of research to obtain gas that can heat heating engines and / or fuel cells. And so onGreen hydrogen Can produce anything other than electrolysis.

Current methods

Professor Hubert Giralt’s team from the School of Basic Science at EPFL has added a method to the range of possibilities for obtaining hydrogen by pyrolysis or gasification. With the latter, the waste is subjected to a temperature of about 1,000 C to be converted to solid or liquid organism. The gas thus produced is a mixture of hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide and other hydrocarbons. It comes with bios that can be used in agriculture. Pyrolysis, on the other hand, is divided into 3 processes, the classic and rapid variations of which are based on placing a conditioned organism in a lukewarm atmosphere under a pressure of 5 bar. The required temperature for deformation is 400 to 800 C. However the role of the user is high. Flash pyrolysis releases more gas. With a short duration, the process requires the presence of furnaces capable of withstanding high pressures and temperatures up to 600 செல் C.

The photo-pyrolysis method developed by Professor Hubert Girald’s team is very different from conventional, rapid and flash pyrolysis. First, the first stage requires drying at 105 C for 24 hours. The organic matter removed from its moisture is then crushed and sifted to fine powder. The latter is placed in a stainless steel furnace at ambient pressure and under an inert atmosphere. Through a standard glass window, the material is illuminated by a very powerful incandescent beam provided by a xenon lamp. The change was immediate. According to Swiss scientists at EPFL, light-thermal chemical reactions last only a few milliseconds. Release: Synthetic gas and always biochar.

Bananas and other waste

Banana peel is not the only evidence tested by Professor Hubert Girald’s team. He experimented with photo-pyrolysis with coconut husks, coffee beans, orange peels and corn cobs. However, he liked the first source and offers very encouraging results. One kilogram of dry banana peels is enough to get 100 liters of hydrogen and 330 grams of solids. ” This is up to 33% by weight of the initial weight of the dried banana skin Bhavana Nagar, a scientist who participated in the experiments, insists.

This biocide can still be used as fertilizer for new crops. But its quality makes it possible to imagine the most interesting exploitation in the production of current-carrying electrodes. The work also revealed a ratio of 4.09 MJ of energy per kilogram of dry matter. Before drying it would have been appropriate to report the result from the mass along with details for the various sources tested. These elements are undoubtedly in the complete document published in the Journal of Chemical Science.

 

Little focus on the xenon lamp

It was no coincidence that Professor Hubert Girald used a more powerful xenon flashlight. He uses this light and energy source for other work. Especially for the assembly of nanoparticles.

It is accepted for curing metal inks in existing material and generally in the field of printed electronics. The study has some questions: How to differentiate and collect enough banana peel to get an interesting amount of hydrogen used for steady operation? Even imagining a mix of orange peels and coconut husks, can any company that converts these fruits into jam, compost, sweets and other finished products offer enough to invest in a profitable processing and collection system? Should this work be put on hold, or is it possible to open up to other biological resources?





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