Hydrogen from tobacco waste

In order to meet the energy demand and to have a cleaner environment, the interest in new and renewable energy sources has been increasing. In this regard, biomass is one of the renewable energy sources and it can be used to obtain solid, liquid and gaseous energy products for various purposes. In this study, gasification reactions of tobacco waste have been carried out in an updraft gasifier in the presence of Na
₂
CO
₃
catalyst. Research has been done in order to increase H
₂
ratio in the product gas stream. Moisture, ash, extractives, lignin, hemicellulose and cellulose contents of tobacco waste were determined using standard methods. Effect of gasification parameters such as temperature (650, 750, 850°C) and catalyst ratio (10, 20, 30, 40 and 50%) on the gas product yield and its H
₂
content was investigated. Gas product composition was identified by micro GC gas analyzer. The highest H
₂
yield was obtained at 650°C and 40% catalyst ratio as 6.06 mol H
₂
/kg tobacco waste on dry biomass basis.