Folks, On Friday and again on Monday (yesterday) we converted sawdust into a hydrocarbon oil.
Essentially what we are trying to do is "low temperature catalysis" (see Ernst Bayer patent from the '80's which produced gas, "petrochemical oil" and char) which involves slow (as opposed to fast pyrolysis) heat up of biomass in the presence of a catalyst. As the reactions begin to occur, the catalyst cracks the long chains and systematically deoxygenates the liquid by dehydration (H2O), decarboxylation (CO2) and decarbonalyation (CO) leaving a low oxygen content oil as the liquid product. The benefit of the low oxygen is that, after fractionation, this oil can be added to mineral diesel and kerosene. Alternatively, if supplied to a refinery, it can be added to the feed going to the hydrotreater where deoxygenation is completed. This puts it equivalent to mineral based fuels. While this is not gasification, it is an interesting progression of trying to convert biomass into a renewable fuel, in this case liquid. Our next step is to add two more upstream processing steps to improve the overall process. Kind regards Rex Zietsman From: Tom Reed [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 10 February 2014 02:34 PM To: Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification Cc: [email protected]; Jurgen Honig Subject: Re: [Gasification] Construction of the first pyrolysis plant (biomass-to-liquid) has started Tom Taylor and all We Humans are word manipulators, mostly to our benefit. But "pyrolysis oil" is a dangerous misnomer! Hydrocarbon oils have been fully reduced by geologic processes and store maximum energy In a Minimum volume. Oil can be represented as chains of CH2 of varying length. Carbohydrates, CH2O,(sugars, C6H12O6 and their polymers, starch and cellulose, C6H10,O5) are already 1/3 oxidized, and as such, are much more reactive for the purposes of life. So further oxidation to the witches brew of pyrolsis "oils" is the wrong direction. Don't be misled by the name! Tom Reed >From Tom Reed AKA Dr Thomas B Reed 508 353 7841 Www.Thomas Reed Inventions .com On Feb 9, 2014, at 10:18 AM, [email protected] wrote: Does anyone know how they address the problems of pyrolysis oil such as it's acidic nature, tends to harden by auto oxidation over time, and other issues that the US DOE has spent significant amounts of money on and no one that I am aware of including folks trying fast pyrolysis have overcome? In the late 60's or early 70's Occidental Chemical tried a 200 ton/day fast pyrolysis plant in the San Diego area that ran for 8 hours before they scrapped it. This has been going on for a long time. Sincerely, Leland T. "Tom" Taylor Thermogenics Inc. -----Original Message----- From: Otto Formo <[email protected]> To: Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification <[email protected]> Sent: Sun, Feb 9, 2014 1:11 am Subject: Re: [Gasification] Construction of the first pyrolysis plant (biomass-to-liquid) has started Tom, According to my knowledge, one plant has allready been build in Norway, but due to the fact that the oil producing government of Norway (or Statoil), was not ready to give them a start up tax reduction for their finished products, its is not in operation. A pilot plant in a smaler scale, has been running for some time now, funded by EU. Otto ________________________________________ Date: Sun, 9 Feb 2014 10:47:32 +1100 From: [email protected] To: [email protected]; [email protected] Subject: Re: [Gasification] Construction of the first pyrolysis plant (biomass-to-liquid) has started cha Sent from Samsung Mobile -------- Original message -------- Subject: [Gasification] Construction of the first pyrolysis plant (biomass-to-liquid) has started From: Tom Miles <[email protected]> To: Discussion of biomass pyrolysis and gasification <[email protected]> CC: Empyro BV announces that the construction of its pyrolysis oil production plant has started at the AkzoNobel site in Hengelo (The Netherlands). By the end of this year construction will have been completed. The production capacity will then be gradually increased to its maximum of over 20 million litres of pyrolysis oil per year. This amount of renewable oil will replace 12 million cubic meters of natural gas, the equivalent annual consumption of 8,000 Dutch households, which saves up to 20,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. Additionally, the project creates approximately 100 person-years of work in Overijssel. http://www.btg-btl.com/en/company/news/news/article?id=105 _______________________________________________ Gasification mailing list to Send a Message to the list, use the email address [email protected] to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/gasification_lists.bioenergylists.org for more Gasifiers, News and Information see our web site: http://gasifiers.bioenergylists.org/ _______________________________________________ Gasification mailing list to Send a Message to the list, use the email address [email protected] to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/gasification_lists.bioenergylists.org for more Gasifiers, News and Information see our web site: http://gasifiers.bioenergylists.org/ _______________________________________________ Gasification mailing list to Send a Message to the list, use the email address [email protected] to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/gasification_lists.bioenergylists.org for more Gasifiers, News and Information see our web site: http://gasifiers.bioenergylists.org/ --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com _______________________________________________ Gasification mailing list to Send a Message to the list, use the email address [email protected] to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/gasification_lists.bioenergylists.org for more Gasifiers, News and Information see our web site: http://gasifiers.bioenergylists.org/
