Plasma generation for hydrogen production from banana waste

Agricultural and forestry wastes, which primarily consist of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, are currently being utilized as a significant energy resource. Banana waste is an abundant source of biomass in Indonesia. In this study, through plasma generation in banana waste using pure water, lignocellulose contents were decomposed into various gas products. Pseudo stem and true stem from banana waste were used to compare hydrogen production rates and product gas percentages. The result shows that hydrogen production rate increased up to 49% from 13.30 to 25.93 mmol/s for banana true stem and 11% from 17.43 to 19.66 mmol/s for banana pseudo stem as the initial concentration increased, and the highest hydrogen production rate at 25.93 mmol/s was found from banana pseudo stem at 3 wt% initial concentration. Energy payback ratio varies from a low of 17 to a high of 37% for banana true stem and 25 to 27% for banana pseudo stem. Hydrogen yield and hydrogen selectivity as high as 70.7% and 98.8% were determined when using banana pseudo stem. Hydrogen yield and hydrogen selectivity tend to decrease as the initial concentration increases.