Process to turn food waste into sustainable hydrogen is licensed to energy company

In South Dakota, the Purdue Research Foundation completed a licensing agreement with an international energy company for the commercialization of a new process discovered at Purdue University Northwest for the biological production of hydrogen from food waste.

A second licensing agreement with a company in Indiana is under negotiation.

This new process uses food waste to biologically produce hydrogen that can be used as a sustainable energy source for producing electricity, as well as for chemical and industrial processes or as a transportation fuel.

Robert Kramer, professor of Physics at PNW and principal investigator for the research, stated that more than 30% of all food, amounting to $48 billion, is wasted in the United States each year. That waste could be used in the developed process to create hydrogen, a sustainable energy source that does not cause environmental issues. When hydrogen is combusted, the only byproduct is water vapor.