Biohydrogen production from kitchen based vegetable waste: effect of pyrolysis temperature and time on catalysed and non-catalysed operation.

Pyrolysis of kitchen based vegetable waste (KVW) was studied in a designed packed bed reactor. The effect of process parameters like temperature, time and catalyst on bio-gas yield and its composition was studied. The total bio-gas yield was found to be maximum with non-catalysed operation (260ml/g) at 1073K (180min). Higher hydrogen (H(2)) yield with non-catalysed operation (32.68%) was observed at 1073K (180min) while with catalysed operation the requisite temperature (873K) and time (120min) reduced with both silica gel (33.34%) and sand (41.82%) thus, saving energy input. Methane (CH(4)) yield was found to be highest (4.44times than non-catalysed and 1.42 with silica gel) in presence of sand (71.485ml/g) at medium temperature (873K) and time (60min). The catalyst operation reduced the carbondioxide (CO(2)) share from 47.29% to 41.30% (silica gel catalysed) and 21.91% (sand catalysed) at 873K.