Hawaii to Generate Hydrogen Fuel out of Construction Waste

Based in Hawaii, Simonpietri Enterprises has received $1.6 million to generate clean hydrogen fuel out of construction and demolition waste. Hydrogen Industry Leaders explores how this aims to solve Hawaii’s problems of too many landfills and help to meet decarbonisation goals.

The company is co-developing the research project with the University of North Dakota, which will focus on using gasification technology to turn high-volume, highly contaminated organic waste into locally sourced hydrogen.

Simonpietri Enterprises has said that the goal is to design and build modular plants to close waste-to-fuel technical gaps and produce hydrogen for hubs and transportation fuel refining.

In addition, the company and the university’s Energy & Environmental Research Centre will also investigate proprietary techniques to manage the trace metals and heavy metal contamination often found in large-scale demolition and construction waste.

Company president Joelle Simonpietri said: “This idea, to make fuel out of construction and demolition debris rather than stick it in the ground, was born here in Hawaii to solve Hawaii’s problems: too many landfills that need to be expanded or relocated in these islands we call home, not enough local supply of renewable fuel to replace imported fossil fuels, and no local supply of renewable fuel that can be used in airplanes.”