Green hydrogen production from palm oil mill effluent (POME) by photocatalysis reaction

The hydrogen generation from renewable sources in photoelectrochemical cell under visible light is a promising way to produce clean and sustainable green energy. The photoelectrochemical water splitting process using semiconductor photocatalyst received highly favourable reviews. The most effective photocatalyst for hydrogen generation is TiO₂. The surface and structure of TiO₂ photocatalyst used was characterized by SEM, XRD and UVVis analysis. Economically, a way in reducing the production cost of this process is using palm oil mill effluent in the electrolyte that are not costly, easily available in this country besides increase the performance due to its high energy content. Palm oil mill effluent is a waste from palm oil mill industry has gain many interest due to its capability of photocatalytic degradation. Water or 0.5M Na₂SO₄ with the addition POME solution are used as electrolyte and the efficiency of photoelectrochemical cell show that water are more efficient. In the photoelectrochemical cell, the highest photocurrent density obtained is 300 μA/cm² at 0.33 vol% of filtered POME solution added to the water electrolyte.