This study investigated hydrogen produced from feeding three types of biomass wastes (rice straw, banyan leaves, and dry algae) into the microwave plasma system. When operating the microwave plasma system atmospherically (including 12SLM of central and vortex air flow at a power of 800W, 900W, or 1000W), different feeding methods were adopted, and the researchers measured the concentration of hydrogen and other gas products, calculated the conversion rate, and evaluated the feasibility of the technique. For feeding rice straws into the microwave plasma system at 800W, 900W, and 1000W using the upstream method, the concentrations of the produced hydrogen were 47.92%, 52.66%, and 56.08%, respectively. For feeding rice straws using the downstream method, the concentrations of the produced hydrogen were 33.65%, 40.15%, and 45.39%, respectively. For feeding banyan leaves using the upstream method, the concentrations of the produced hydrogen were 40.61%, 48.63%, and 52.82%, respectively. For feeding banyan leaves using the downstream method, the concentrations of the produced hydrogen were 34.08%, 37.97%, and 40.52%, respectively. For feeding dry algae using the upstream method, the concentrations of the produced hydrogen were 36.75%, 41.34%, and 45.13%, respectively. For feeding dry algae using the downstream method, the concentrations of the produced hydrogen were 30.80%, 33.20%, and 37.58%, respectively. This data indicates that the upstream feeding method is better than the downstream one for hydrogen production, and an increase of power can enhance the production of hydrogen. The most optimum hydrogen production was achieved when rice straws were fed into the system using the upstream method at a power of 1000W; each gram of rice straws produced about 40.47mg of hydrogen (conversion rate = 67.45%). For banyan leaves and dry algae, 40.40mg (conversion rate = 67.33%) and 31.46mg (conversion rate = 52.43%) of hydrogen were produced respectively. For other gas products, no CH4 was produced in this study because most of the produced CH4 from microwave plasma conversion had reacted with CO2 and produced CO and H2. The study also revealed that the concentration of CO2 decreased as the power decreased, and this drop of concentration was more apparent in the upstream feeding method than in the downstream method. Nevertheless, the result from t-test suggested that the different CO2 concentration at different power was not statistically significant. SWOT analysis was performed to examine the feasibility of using microwave plasma atmospherically for converting biomass wastes to hydrogen, and the result revealed that internally, the emphasis should be placed on the quality and quantity of products, as well as the techniques and performance, while externally, economy, policies, and energy sources should be the focuses.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0716112-174646 |
| Date | 16 July 2012 |
| Creators | Hsiao, Yi-hsing |
| Contributors | Tzi-yi Wu, Yuan-chung Lin, Cheng-hsien Tsai, Lien-te Hsieh |
| Publisher | NSYSU |
| Source Sets | NSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive |
| Language | Cholon |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0716112-174646 |
| Rights | user_define, Copyright information available at source archive |
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