MINLP optimization for heat integration of bio-hydrogen production from palm waste

With the current energy and environmental crisis, hydrogen economy has now gained a positive outlook. This alternative type of energy can be produced from a renewable source such as biomass. However, the thermochemical conversion of biomass into hydrogen via steam gasification can be energy intensive due to its endothermic behaviour. In this work, a mixed integer non-linear (MINLP) mathematical problem has been developed to design an energy efficient process to produce hydrogen from biomass steam gasification. The MINLP work targets to minimize the total cost subject to minimum utility cost, area cost and exchangers fixed cost. The MINLP optimization was carried out in MATLAB and able to simultaneously solve the reaction kinetics calculations, flowsheet performance and production cost along with the heat integration. © School of Engineering, Taylor�s University.