Abstract:
The need to energy may be even now expanding because of generally speaking development
in the planet populace and in addition the developing interest for change previously,
expectation for everyday life. The globe is confronting extreme contamination issues from
those by-products of fossil fuel uses. In this study hydrogen was produced in simple
methodology by using environmentally available materials such as water, light and
biomass which was collected from Jimma zone Asendabo. The physical properties of
collected biomass was analyzed, the effect of operating parameters on hydrogen
production was investigated and optimization of operating parameters was occurred with
Response Surface Methodology by Design Expert Version11. The sample was collected
from the study area and it was minimized into small size to dry simply and to crush it with
pestle. The crushed sample was sieved with sieve size of 2mm. The sieved sample was used
to characterize the corn cob and also used as electrolyte in the process. The experiment
run had occurred in a dish that connected with stainless steel both at cathode and anode.
Light was applied on the solution by immersing electric bulb to speed up the breakdown of
water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. The experiment was run by varying time in the
interval of 1hr-4hr, pH in the interval of 5-9, temperature in the interval of 200C-350C and
biomass concentration in-between 5g/l and 10g/l. The physical characteristics of corn cob
was analyzed and it fulfills the required standard and the effect of operating parameters
were optimized through Response surface methodology of Design Expert Version11. When
time increases the production rate decrease, and the production rate increase with pH
approaches to 7. When biomass concentration and temperature rate increase the
production rate also increase. So, the optimum hydrogen (59.7922%) was located at time,
pH, biomass concentration and temperature of 1hr, 6.8662, 10g/l and 350C respectively.
Further researches have to be carried out to increase the yield of H2 gas from other types
of biomass, which are pollutant in the environment but they are the sources of energy.
