How harnessing waste heat could drive on-site hydrogen generation

Hydrogen is poised to play a key role in Australia's clean energy transition. As the universe's most abundant chemical element, hydrogen occurs naturally and, in some countries, is being used to heat homes, power cars and large industries while emitting only water.

Federation researchers are now looking to overcome some of the most significant barriers in industry's transition to adopting hydrogen by developing a system to generate and store hydrogen on-site by harnessing wasted heat generated in production processes. While hydrogen is plentiful, it can be challenging to produce and difficult and expensive to transport and store.

The research team, led by Associate Professor Ibrahim Sultan and Dr Truong Phung, has teamed up with Meredith Dairy in a CSIRO-funded project to develop a microgeneration plant that will extract waste heat from the farm's industrial processes and then use that heat to heat a fluid to generate electricity.

The novel plant developed by the researchers will then use the electricity generated to produce hydrogen on-site. By integrating the process within the farm's existing operations, the system will potentially allow the dairy and other companies that adopt a similar setup to produce their own hydrogen, store it, and use it to enhance energy efficiency within their facilities.

The collaboration is part of the CSIRO Industry PhD (iPhD) program, which brings together an industry partner, a university and Australia's leading science agency to co-develop a four-year industry-focused PhD project.

Associate Professor Sultan says industries often generate excess heat from engineering processes that go to waste, simply escaping into the environment.

"Heat is such a precious resource because it is often produced by fuel and we should be looking at it as a fuel that we can use again," he said.

"There has been research in this area for a long time and many industries are developing their own electricity. We want to take this approach further and explore how to generate hydrogen."

Professor Sultan says Meredith Dairy is the ideal partner for the project as it already has many components needed to develop it, including a large boiler where the excess heat can be used for electricity generation.

The boiler generates steam for sterilising the plant and equipment, but it is difficult to control and needs to be operated around the clock, meaning much excess heat is generated.

Associate Professor Sultan says the ideal outcome is to produce as much hydrogen as possible, a process through electrolysis in which an electric current separates water into hydrogen and oxygen.

"The project has some challenges, which makes it so interesting. The company is happy for us to build this facility into their plant and then continue the process with data collection," he said.

"It will be an ongoing process for researchers at Federation – more collaboration with Meredith Dairy to keep observing how the plant is performing and looking at ways of improving performance.

"Meredith Dairy has sensors fitted throughout their operation to monitor the amount of heat, pressure, and other elements. This will help our data collection process and will help us download information to study the plant."

Associate Professor Sultan and Dr Phung developed the concept in 2023. They met with Meredith Dairy's environmental coordinator and Federation University alumni Dominic Murphy, who backed the proposal, which was taken to the CSIRO.

The collaboration is worth about $250,000 to Federation, and Associate Professor Sultan says the PhD opportunity could appeal to engineering or science graduates with an interest in renewable energy. It will include a professional development training program delivered alongside the PhD, with supervision by Federation, the CSIRO, and Meredith Dairy.

He says one of the project's more appealing aspects is the potential for more industry collaborations in on-site hydrogen production for the region.

"We have been speaking with other companies who are interested in doing something similar. Once people see how it works, we think many more will be interested in developing something like this for their own operation."

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