Geothermal industry waste-derived catalyst for enhanced biohydrogen production

The main aim of this work was to develop sustainable catalyst from geothermal waste by hydrothermal process for enhanced biohydrogen production. The effects of Si/Al ratio and pH neutralization on the catalyst were also investigated to provide further insight into the hydrogen production capability. Results have shown with increasing Si/Al ratio, a lower amount of catalyst was synthesized and smaller particle size was obtained. pH neutralization treatment resulted in higher conversion compared to non-neutralized ones. Meanwhile, the highest conversion of biohydrogen from ethanol through steam reforming process (95.19%) was obtained from catalyst with pH neutralization treatment and Si/Al ratio of 10. The catalyst developed in this study was concluded to be suitable for framework/supporting catalyst due to relatively low selectivity.