Production of green hydrogen from sewage sludge / algae in agriculture diesel engine: Performance Evaluation

Venkatesh Rathinavelu; Arul Kulandaivel; Arvind Kumar Pandey; Rahul Bhatt; Melvin Victor De Poures; Ismail Hossain; Asiful Hossain Seikh; Amjad Iqbal; P Murugan

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e23988

Production of green hydrogen from sewage sludge / algae in agriculture diesel engine: Performance Evaluation

Heliyon. 2024 Jan 3;10(1):e23988. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e23988. eCollection 2024 Jan 15.

Authors

Venkatesh Rathinavelu¹, Arul Kulandaivel², Arvind Kumar Pandey³, Rahul Bhatt⁴, Melvin Victor De Poures¹, Ismail Hossain⁵, Asiful Hossain Seikh⁶, Amjad Iqbal⁷, P Murugan⁸

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Saveetha School of Engineering, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences (SIMATS), Chennai 602105, Tamilnadu, India.
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, Agni College of Technology, Chennai, 600130, Tamilnadu, India.
³ Department of Computer Science, ARKA JAIN University, Jamshedpur, 831001, Jharkhand, India.
⁴ Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Dev Bhoomi Uttarakhand University, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India.
⁵ School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Ural Federal University, Yekaterinburg, 620000, Russia.
⁶ Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, King Saud University, Riyadh 11421, Saudi Arabia.
⁷ Department of Materials Technologies, Faculty of Materials Engineering, Silesian University of Technology, 44-100, Gliwice, Poland.
⁸ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jimma Institute of Technology, JIMMA University, Ethiopia.

Abstract

Alternative fuel opportunities can satisfy energy security and reduce carbon emissions. In this regard, the hydrogen fuel is derived from the source of environmental pollutants like sewage and algae wastewater through hydrothermal gasification technique using a KOH catalyst with varied gasification process parameters of duration and temperature of 6-30 min and 500-800 °C. The novelty of the work is to identify the optimum gasification process parameter for obtaining the maximum hydrogen yield using a KOH catalyst as an alternative fuel for agricultural engine applications. Influences of gasification processing time and temperature on H₂ selectivity, Carbon gasification efficiency (CE), Lower heating value (LHV), Hydrogen yield potential (HYP), and gasification efficiency (GE) were studied. Its results showed that the gasifier operated at 800 °C for 30 min, offering maximum hydrogen yield (26 mol/kg) and gasification efficiency (58 %). The synthesized H₂ was an alternative fuel blended with diesel fuel/TiO₂ nanoparticles. It was experimentally studied using an internal combustion engine. Influences of H₂ on engine performance, like brake-specific fuel consumption, brake thermal efficiency and emission performances, were measured and compared with diesel fuel. The results showed that DH20T has the least (420g/kWh) brake-specific fuel consumption (BSFC) and superior brake thermal efficiency of about 25.2 %. The emission results revealed that the DH20T blend showed the NO_X value increased by almost 10.97 % compared to diesel fuel, whereas the CO, UHC, and smoke values reduced by roughly 31.25, 28.34, and 42.35 %. The optimum fuel blend (DH20T) result is recommended for agricultural engine applications.

Keywords: Algae/sewage sludge; Engine performance; Gasification process; Hydrogen.