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Hydrogen Pathways Researcher Nathan Parker Speaks at Cal EPA, September 2005
Nathan Parker was invited to give Dr. Alan Lloyd’s Secretary Seminar on September 27, 2005 focusing on the conversion of biomass waste streams into hydrogen for use in California’s vehicle fleet. This seminar provided a brief overview of biomass resources in California and focused on current biomass conversion technologies. The potential for converting rice straw waste to hydrogen fuel was presented as a case study.
Production of Hydrogen from Waste Biomass
Nathan Parker, Hydrogen Pathways Program, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis
Hydrogen produced from waste biomass potentially provides benefits by both providing an alternate end-use for waste streams and providing a clean fuel for California’s vehicle fleet. Available waste resources from agriculture, forestry, and municipalities could provide 25% of California’s current transportation fuel needs. Nathan Parker presented A brief overview of the biomass resources in California to California EPA staff. In addition, the talk provided descriptions of known biomass conversion methods and review the technical and economic performances of these technologies.
Case Study: Conversion of Rice Straw to Hydrogen in Northern California
Rice straw is a particularly interesting feedstock due to the concentrated nature of the rice industry and environmental regulation encouraging alternate means of disposal. Mr. Parker presented a case study which optimizes the location of a conversion facility to provide hydrogen in Northern California. Preliminary results show that hydrogen can be produced from rice straw at a cost competitive with natural gas based hydrogen systems.
About the speaker
Nathan Parker graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in Physics from Wake Forest University in May 2001. After graduation he spent two years working as the Demonstrations Manager in the Physics Department of North Carolina A&T State University. Nathan is currently a Master’s student in the Transportation Technology and Policy program at UC Davis. Since his arrival in Davis in 2003, Nathan has worked on a number of hydrogen infrastructure-related projects. His thesis is a spatial economic optimization of infrastructure to produce and deliver hydrogen from waste biomass.