Textile Waste to Green Hydrogen for Clean Water and Energy Project at IIT Madras

Textile Waste to Green Hydrogen to Power: An Attempt to Provide Cleaner Water and Energy

Objective

• Cleaning organic pollutant-rich water producing electrical energy simultaneously.

Description

• The treatment process of wastewater produces gases with a H2 content of up to 60%. Economically seen, the power consumption of the electrooxidation is crucial for the economic viability of the treatment process. However, this maintenance-free water treatment process requires only electricity for its operation and no other chemicals. Using the produced H2 during wastewater treatment to run a combustion reactor or fuel cell that partially supports the energy consumption of the wastewater treatment process provides additional improvements in the economic efficiency of this efficient wastewater treatment process. The H2 produced will be isolated and fed to fuel cell such as hydrogen-oxygen polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell or phosphoric acid fuel cell to produce electrical energy.

Impact

• A growing population expands the amount of industrial waste generated with time. At the same time the growth of renewable energy installations such as wind and solar farm is also phenomenal, and it is expected by 2050 nearly 2400 TW capacity of renewable energy production would happen. To effectively utilize the excess energy available locally due to the seasonal nature of the wind and solar, it is important to identify processes that would benefit humanity using the available energy which otherwise will be wasted as heat if not used. The proposed technology would improve the water quality as well as the renewable energy contribution to the energy mix.