Sendai City and Tohoku University in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, jointly started to develop a system to produce hydrogen from sewage sludge and the energy from sunlight in the autumn of 2003.

The system will extract hydrogen using solar radiation as a catalyst on hydrogen sulfide generated from the sludge. Residual sulfur will be combined with heavy metals in industrial waste and recycled.

The joint study aims at developing new environmental technologies to create hydrogen, a clean energy fuel. Up to the present, Sendai has been dehydrating and incinerating sewage sludge. In contrast, the new system, if successful, is expected to considerably reduce the amount and cost of sludge disposal.

The development is one of several projects under the Sendai International Intellectual Industry Special Zone Program, designed to create new industries by utilizing intellectual property in universities. Professor Kazuyuki Toji of the Graduate School of Environmental Studies at Tohoku University is in charge of the project. The city is making a sewage facility available and allocating 5 million yen (about U.S.$41,700) for the experiment.



Posted: 2003/11/08 09:08:10 PM
Japanese version

TAG Energy , Local government , Material reduction , Technology , University/Research institute