Harnessing hydrogen from solid waste

The continuous increase in population, urbanization, economic development, and life style changes have led to increase in solid waste generation. Whereas, the global energy consumption is also anticipated to rise by 56% between 2010 and 2040. In order to decarbonize the hard-to-abate sectors and reach the Net Zero Emission standards as a global objective, low-carbon (green) hydrogen generation is a top priority. The present chapter aims to critically analyze the existing technological options for hydrogen production from solid waste biomass arising from municipal solid waste (MSW) and agriculture waste (AW). The potential of MSW and AW as a source of hydrogen production via various thermochemical and biochemical conversion process has been assessed. The details regarding production/conversion process of syngas to pure hydrogen using thermochemical (gasification and pyrolysis) and biochemical (dark fermentation and photo-fermentation) process has been discussed. Besides this, it also amplifies the impact of various parameters, such as feedstock characteristic, type of enhancing agents, and use of catalysts on hydrogen production yield. Finally, the chapter highlights certain practical challenges responsible for poor hydrogen production and scalability in present market.