Techno-economic analysis of a novel bioprocess combining solid state fermentation and dark fermentation for H2 production from food waste

The techno-economic analysis of a novel bioprocess combining solid state fermentation and dark fermentation for H2 production from food waste (FW) was investigated. A H2 production plant was designed with capacity of 10 ton/day and lifetime of 10 years. Aspen Plus was utilized to simulate the mass and energy balance of the plant. It was noticed that the total capital investment, annual operation cost and annual revenue of the plant were USD707850, USD366700/year and USD574800/year, respectively. The payback period of the plant was 5 years with internal rate of return of 20.2%. The H2 market price and operating labour cost were the most important parameters on the net present value of the plant. The unit H2 production cost was USD2.29/m3 which was cheaper than the H2 market price (USD2.7/m3). The results demonstrated that the combined bioprocess was economically feasible for industrial H2 production.