Energy and materials from biomass
We simply cannot afford to leave the enormous potential of biomass untapped in tackling the current energy challenge. However, although biomass is abundantly available in many countries it usually suffers from several disadvantages that have limited its application so far:
- Contaminants in the biomass include large amounts of oxygen, water and ash (mostly sand and minerals).
- Availability of biomass is highest in sparsely populated areas, while energy consumption is highest in highly populated areas.
- Structure: Biomass is a solid with widely varying characteristics which makes it more difficult to handle in industrial processes then oil and gas.
- Energy density of wood chips is 3-4 GJ/m3 compared to 35-40 GJ/m3 for crude oil.
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Why pyrolysis?
The disadvantages of biomass (CASE) can be overcome by local small scale conversion of biomass into a liquid energy carrier. Pyrolysis technology offers the following unique selling points:
- Pyrolysis oil is produced from non-food biomass and is therefore a second generation biofuel which does not compete with the food chain.
- The local decentralized production of pyrolysis oil seperates out the minerals in the biomass so they can be recycled to maintain the soil quality.
- Due to its energy density and liquid form existing infrastructure can be used for transporting pyrolysis oil.
- GHG savings (GreenHouse Gas) of our raw pyrolysis oil are well above that of other biofuels. (85-95% for heat and power applications)
- Pyrolysis oil can be stored for long periods of time, and is therefore available when necessary.
- It can substitute fossil fuels in heat and power applications and thereby provide peak renewable power to complement other (intermittent) renewable power sources such as wind and solar.
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