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Novel Microbial Hydrogen Production from Biomass Containing Waste Water—Ion Power, Inc., 720 Governor Lea Road, New Castle, DE  19720; 302-832-9550, www.ion-power.com 

Dr. Stephen Grot, Principal Investigator, s.grot@ion-power.com

Dr. Stephen Grot, Business Official, s.grot@ion-power.com

DOE Grant No. DE-FG02-06ER84418

Amount:  $99,984

The treatment of waste water consumes a significant amount of energy, in order to reduce the organic matter to levels safe for environmental discharge.  This project will develop a novel microbial-based approach to convert the organic matter in waste water into a valuable commodity, namely hydrogen.  This approach would simultaneously clean the waste water and produce a fuel that can be sold to help recover the costs of treatment.  Phase I will demonstrate the process on the lab bench scale, measure performance at different operating parameters, optimize the geometrical configuration, and reduce the scale of the laboratory demonstration by a factor of five (to a one cubic foot reactor).  Finally, the data collected will be used to estimate the capital and operating costs of a full-scale plant.

Commercial Applications And Other Benefits as described by the awardee:   A novel process that can generate hydrogen from waste-water streams and other biomass sources can significantly reduce our nation's dependence on foreign energy sources.  Small, off-grid alternative-energy applications where wastewater treatment is needed could benefit from this technology.