An innovation method for hydrogen production from water by cycling sulfur component with cabohydrate waste

We report a new method of hydrogen production from water by cycling sulfur component with glucose, the simplest sugar of carbohydrates, at mild hydrothermal conditions. Experiments were performed in a batch reactor with an internal volume of 42-mL by varying the temperature from 200 °C to 330 °C. Experimental results with the use of H2S as reducer showed that H2S was effective for hydrogen production from water, but the amount of hydrogen was limited by the amount of the initial H2S, probably due to the oxidation of H2S into sulfur oxides. We therefore proposed an innovation method for cycling sulfur component with glucose as a reducer. The results showed that the hydrogen production and H2S clearly increased when adding glucose into water-H2S system, at the same time, glucose was converted into lactic acid. These results suggested that hydrogen could be produced continuously from water only by adding glucose into water-H2S system at a mild condition.