Consortium for Waste-to-Hydrogen utilisation and betterment (C-WtHub)

Funded by Supergen Bioenergy Hub, C-WtHub (Consortium for Waste-to-Hydrogen utilisation and betterment) is an academic consortium linking the waste-to-hydrogen (WtH) research and community in the UK with leading biohydrogen research groups overseas (e.g., China, India, South Korea, and USA). C-WtHub serves as a biohydrogen research forum for continuous collaboration and long-term impacts centering around WtH technologies and development.

WHAT IS HYDROGEN ECONOMY
A hydrogen economy has long been promoted as a ground-breaking aspect of a low-carbon future and hydrogen serves as a promising energy source for addressing the global concerns related to the environment, energy security, and economic growth. The term “hydrogen economy” was first used by John Bockris in the presentation to General Motors in 1970 and was referred to as the idea of an ecosystem in which hydrogen acts as a principal energy conveyor. The prime motive of a hydrogen economy is to produce hydrogen through widely available sources for replacing the traditional fossil fuel-based energy resources. Relying on fossil fuels negatively affects the long-term sustainability due to their finite reserves and fluctuating costs. Meanwhile, it is impossible to achieve the full benefits of hydrogen as a clean, versatile, and efficient transport fuel without the use of renewable energy sources for hydrogen production. Alternative hydrogen production pathways are required to facilitate the transition to the hydrogen economy.

WHAT IS WTH
Waste-to-Hydrogen (WtH) technologies (e.g., fermentation, pyrolysis, gasification, etc.) serve as a promising solution for low-carbon hydrogen production with locally available waste biomass. Meanwhile, sustainable waste management is a global challenge and is calling for effective methods that can contribute to value-added resource recovery from waste and thus the concept of circular economy. The WtH technologies can divert waste from landfills and recover hydrogen from waste, and thus are a dual-purpose method that tackles the challenges of sustainable hydrogen production and waste management, simultaneously.

THE ROLE OF HYDROGEN IN THE TRANSPORT SECTOR
Hydrogen is considered as one of the ultimate solutions for meeting the sustainable energy demand of the transport sector and for reducing traffic-related air pollutant and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions towards a cleaner environment. Hydrogen can be used in fuel cells in automotive applications to power pollutant-free transport. The hydrogen-powered transport will play a critical role in facilitating the transition from a fossil-fuel-based economy to a low-carbon economy.