Sentient Labs, an R&D and Engineering Lab incubated by the BSE-listed KPIT Technologies, has developed a technology for producing hydrogen from agricultural residue. It has done so in collaboration with the Agharkar Research Institute, based in Pune.
The technology features anaerobic digestion of biomass; the feedstock can be any agricultural residue such as rice straw, wheat straw, sugarcane tops, sugar industry waste such as press-mud and bagasse, food industry waste and cultivated biomass.
The process of Hydrogen generation through anaerobic digestion is like bio - methanation process which is a commercially matured technology for bio-CNG generation, says Sentinel Labs.
Agricultural residue is lignocellulosic in nature and typically requires a thermochemical pre-treatment process to break down the lignocellulosic structure to make it amenable to microbial digestion. This technology developed by Sentient Labs and ARI has overcome this challenge. The technology comprises a two-stage process which uses a novel microbial consortium extracted from a natural source.
The process generates Hydrogen in the first stage, followed by methane in the subsequent stage, which further can be utilized to generate additional Hydrogen by steam methane reformation. The technology is thus 25% more efficient when compared to conventional anaerobic digestion processes.
The effluent of the process also is rich in nutrients and is an ideal organic fertilizer for plants. The undigested solids in the process can be used as soil conditioners which help in maintaining the fertility of the soil in fields.
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