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Reducing Some of the World’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions While Solving Waste Disposal Problems by Converting Organic Waste Materials into Clean, Renewable Hydrogen
About
Eco Energy International is working to develop and commercialize technologies to produce clean renewable energy from waste. Our patented, modular, scalable technologies produce pure hydrogen at costs rivaling those of large scale hydrogen facilities but without releasing greenhouse gases (CO2, CO) that traditional hydrogen processes produce. By using renewable feedstocks, this hydrogen is considered green (renewable) hydrogen that is in high demand in a growing market. When applying our technologies to Municipal Solid Wastes, we produce renewable hydrogen from the biogenic (organic) materials that can be dissolved in our caustic solution and syngas from the balance of materials. This means that these materials are not landfilled where they would produce harmful greenhouse gases. Metals and glass are separated and recycled. The net result is a Total Recovery Facility (TRF) that produces renewable energy while significantly reducing the carbon footprint and reducing dependence on landfills, all at a profit.
Key Benefits
This process technology is referred to as Base Facilitated Reformation or BFR: - Any organic materials can be converted directly into pure hydrogen at a profit. This includes: Municipal Solid Waste, Agricultural Solid Waste, Food Industry Waste, Biodiesel Production Waste, Brewery Waste. - All of the carbon content is sequestered into a marketable by-product. - Minimizes or eliminates organic waste going into the landfill; thus, avoiding production of greenhouse gases (CH4 and CO2) and conserving valuable real estate. - Minimizes truck loads going to the landfill thus reducing costs and the emissions from the trucks. - Minimizes or eliminates the need for costly incinerators and their associated emissions. - Generates revenue via the sale of highly sought-after renewable hydrogen. - Most hydrogen production today is from a process called Steam Methane Reformation (SMR). The SMR process uses non-renewable natural gas as the feedstock. The BFR process uses waste which is classified as renewable. - The SMR process releases 11 times as much CO2 as the hydrogen produced. Conversely, the BFR process sequesters all carbon. - Production costs are competitive with existing large-scale hydrogen facilities. - Modular, scalable and configurable: these systems can be located nearer end users reducing or eliminating expensive transportation costs and their associated emissions. The BFR system can also be configured based with alternate byproducts depending on local economics.
Applications
1. Municipal Solid Waste (MSW): converts all of the organic waste content to hydrogen. This includes Paper Products, Wood, Food Waste and Yard Waste and other Organic Materials. Each 25 tons of unsorted MSW can produce 2000 kg of hydrogen. The USA has 262 million tons of MSW annually with 53% (mostly organic) still going to the landfill. Globally the annual MSW is 2,017 million tons. 2. Biomass: Grass, Grain, Crops, Algae, Sawdust, Cardboard, Cellulose, Hemicelluloses, Lignin, etc. 3. Agricultural Solid Waste (ASW): Animal Waste, Crop Waste and other Agricultural Organic Wastes. The USA produces 335 million tons annually of ASW, most of which is organic. 4. Food Industry Waste (FIW): Food Processing, Meat Processing and Food Service Wastes; i.e. Fryer Oils, Potato Peels. It is estimated that the USA has 40 million tons of food waste each year. 5. Lumber Industry Waste (LIW): Forest Slash Piles, Woodchips, Sawdust, etc. 6. Bio-Diesel Plants: This process has byproducts of glycerol and lignin which have minimal and sometimes negative value. These organics are ideally suited as feedstock for the BFR process. 7. Large Distribution Centers: Amazon and Walmart are converting all of their fork lifts and some robots to fuel cell power. They also have considerable carboard and paper waste at these locations and their stores. We have designed a containerized BFR to sit on their back lot converting this waste into hydrogen for their forklifts. 8. Breweries: Anheuser-Busch has ordered 800 Class 8 semi-tractors from Nikola that are fuel cell powered. Breweries have large amounts of aqueous organic waste which usually puts a burden on the local municipality’s waste treatment facilities. We are proposing to co-locate the BFR units in the plant to process the waste and give back the hydrogen for the new trucks.