Techno-Economic and Life Cycle Assessment of a Bamboo Dust via Thermo-Electrochemical Process for Hydrogen Production: A Waste to Wealth Approach

Abstract

Abstract. Bamboo biomass, a widely used renewable resource, generates substantial bamboo dust waste during processing. This can be converted into hydrogen through a thermo-electrochemical process. This study presents a detailed techno-economic analysis and life cycle assessment under two distinct energy supply scenarios: photovoltaic and industrial grid energy. The techno-economic analysis assesses capital expenditure and operating expenditure for a facility with a capacity of 1000 kg/day, including itemized cost estimation and sensitivity analysis. The results show that the cost of hydrogen production has been determined as 1.68 $/kg hydrogen for the photovoltaic-based system and 3.14 $/kg hydrogen for the grid-based system. A ± 20% sensitivity analysis on capital expenditure and operating expenditure costs demonstrated that the photovoltaic-based system retained economic feasibility even with cost escalation, due to favorable process conditions and system reliability. The environmental performance has been assessed through a cradle-to-gate using simapro (ecoinvent v3.8) with 1 kg of hydrogen as the functional unit, evaluating impact categories such as global warming potential, ozone depletion, eutrophication, acidification, human health, and resource depletion through the ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint (H). The photovoltaic-based process has a much-reduced global warming potential (2.35 kg CO2 eq per kilogram hydrogen) compared to the grid-based system (34.64 kg CO2 eq per kilogram hydrogen). A regional sensitivity analysis of India and the rest of the world found that India's higher solar radiation compensates for photovoltaic manufacturing emissions, hence improving sustainability. The findings of techno-economic analysis and life cycle assessment revealed that producing hydrogen from bamboo dust as feedstock through the thermo-electrochemical process driven by photovoltaic is both economically and environmentally favorable compared with the gasification process, with a hydrogen production cost of 1.80 $/kg, and a global warming potential of 3.25 kg CO2 eq per kg hydrogen.