A new technique based on gasification, offers a sustainable way to turn forest industry by-products, such as bark, sawdust and forestry waste, into transport fuels and chemicals.
The approach reduces carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 90 per cent, as compared with fossil fuels, and was developed by the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd (VTT).
It uses gasification to turn biomass into intermediate products – liquid hydrocarbons, methanol or methane – in production units integrated with communal district heating plants or forest industry power plants. The intermediate products are then further processed in oil refineries to make renewable fuels or chemicals.
VTT has completed a pilot project using the new gasification process and evaluated the competitiveness of plants based on the technique. Approximately 55 per cent of the energy content is turned into transport fuels and a further 20 – 25 per cent can be used to provide communal district heating or to produce steam for industrial processes.
Experts estimate that, in addition to other measures, Finland will need sustainable biofuels to account for 30 per cent of energy consumption of the transport sector by 2030.
The 3.6 per cent target set for advanced biofuels in the European Commission’s Renewable Energy Directive (RED2) equates to 11 million tonnes of oil, which would mean approximately 200 gasification plants.
The development of gasification technology is set to continue through two projects coordinated by VTT as part of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 initiative. The projects focus on gas purification and increasing the efficiency of synthesis technology. They aim to demonstrate the performance of the entire biofuel chain at VTT’s Bioruukki pilot centre in Finland.
Source:
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-01/vtrc-vda011519.php
