Bioliq Biofuels

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Biofuels cannot replace fossil fuels currently. But as the infrastructure for biomass and bioenergy grows, and the economics of bioenergy improves, biofuels will gradually displace fossil fuels. One promising approach comes from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, called bioliq, described previously at AFE. Bioliq involves pyrolysis of biomass, then gasification to syngas, then synthesis of fuels from syngas.

Bioliq is now taking its first steps towards commercialisation. In conjunction with the German process engineering company Lurgi, KIT is starting to construct a pilot plant based on the bioliq technology, which should be fully completed in 2012. Providing the technology works at this scale, the question then will be how best to implement bioliq at a larger scale, so that it can effectively compete with fossil fuels.....

.....Dahmen and his colleagues quickly realised that incorporating both the pyrolysis and gasification steps at this central plant wouldn't work, because of the problems and expense involved in transporting sufficient quantities of bulky straw and wood to the plant. They estimated that if sufficient plant material was transported on trucks, it would quickly bring the road network around the plant to a halt.

So they came up with an alternative set-up. "Biomass is pre-treated in around 50 regionally distributed pyrolysis plants to produce the biosyncrude," explains Dahmen. "This can then be transported economically over long distances to supply a central fuel production plant with a high capacity."

The advantage of this set-up is that it is much cheaper and more convenient to transport liquid biosyncrude than bulky wood and straw. This is especially the case if the biosyncrude is transported by rail, which is the most cost effective way to transport material over long distances. _Bioenergy

It is rather fascinating that the KIT researchers arrived at the same conclusions as Al Fin in regard to the integration of local/regional pyrolisis plants with more centrally located gasification/synthesis plants. It certainly makes sense to pre-process biomass near the harvest site, and compact it. Then ship compacted biomass to a nearby regional pyrolysis plant. Finally, at a more centrally located gasification/synthesis plant, the final synthetic fuels and chemicals are produced. I am pleased that tenured and well-paid scientists and engineers were able to re-create Al Fin's reasoning on this point. ;-) Perhaps they will eventually catch up on the topic of biomass torrefaction.

On the topic of feedstock, eucalyptus appears to be one promising type of tree -- besides the poplar -- that combines growth in marginal soil with rapid biomass production. Eucalyptus is more energy-dense than most woods, so the economics may work out better than for poplar, as long as growth is equivalent. I would like to see research done on the torrefaction of eucalyptus. I suspect the energy density of torrefied eucalyptus to be remarkably close to that of coal.

More information and links here.

German 3 Stage Biomass to Liquids Process

Lurgi GmbH of Germany has announced an interesting 3 Stage process pilot plant for BTL to be completed by 2012. The cost of production would not be competitive with US diesel prices as they are now, but perhaps competitive with European diesel prices. Certainly by 2012 the odds are good that such a process would be a useful alternative to expensive or uncertain supplies of diesel.

According to Lurgi, the first stage of the bioliq process is to use flash pyrolysis at 500 degrees Celsius to generate pyrolysis oil and pyrolysis coke from virtually any dry biomass within a twin-screw mixing reactor. The oil and coke are mixed in the reactor to form the bioliqSynCrude liquid suspension. In the second stage, the bio-crude is then heated to 80 degrees Celsius, pressurized, atomized, mixed with oxygen, and fed into an entrained flow gasifier where it’s converted to syngas at 1400 degrees Celsius and 80 bar of pressure. In the third stage, the syngas is purified and converted into synthetic fuels. It’s expected that the process will produce one liter of synthetic diesel fuel for less than €1 ($1.29). _BiomassMag

Interestingly, after the pyrolysis step the pyrolysis oil and pyrolysis solids are mixed to form a "biocrude". This biocrude is then processed to syngas, and then refined to synth fuel hydrocarbons.

The 3 step process allows the removal of intermediate pyrolysis oil or bio-char or syngas in the first and middle stages if desired, or the full 3 step synthesis can deliver diesel, jet fuel, gasoline, or other desired chemicals. In other words, it is a more versatile BTL process than one that involves pyrolysis alone, gasification alone, or gasification plus chemical synthesis without pyrolysis. The ability to also torrefy the biomass would allow a further versatility in dealing with the feedstock, depending upon customer requirements. That would make it a 4 step process.

Can anyone think of any other advantages to the pyrolysis step 1? To be economical, one must use the least amount of process energy to make the product.

Bioenergy Progress in Europe and the US

In Europe, Air Liquide is progressing in its biomass-to-liquid fuel (BTL) process, building on its successful first stage biomass pyrolysis project and moving to the second stage.

The Bioliq process (PDF), being co-developed by Lurgi and FZK with support from Fachagentur für Nachwachsende Rohstoffe (FNR), is a three-stage process. Biomass is pyrolized to a pyrolysis oil. The pyrolysis oil is mixed with pyrolysis coke from the process to create a biocrude slurry for subsequent gasification to syngas and conversion to chemicals and/or fuels.

The partners envision the pyrolysis stage as being decentralized, in locations close to the source of biomass. The gasification and synthesis stages will be in large centralized locations, preferably existing refineries. _GCC

In the US, the US DOE is announcing up to $200 million in financing for advanced biomass to biofuels projects.

All projects must be located within the US, use feedstock from domestic biomass resources, and demonstrate greenhouse gas reductions on a lifecycle basis. Advanced biofuels produced from these projects are expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a minimum of 50%, as determined by the Environmental Protection Agency. _GCC

The emphasis on reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is a misplaced effort of the DOE to appear trendy and in tune with the carbon hysteria of the EU and the incoming administration of the narcissist-elect, Barak Obama. Long after the scientific basis of green house climate catastrophe has been undermined by real science and real world data, political sycophants will continue to use "climate change" as a selling point for new government programs.

As long as the resulting product is economically profitable above and beyond its "greenhouse" effects, that should be no problem, other than a monumental waste of time, energy, and taxpayer resources in chasing the "greenhouse demons".