Gasification abstracts

Gasification abstracts

The organizers are happy to announce an exciting program with the following presentations:

  • The post-2020 EC policies on de-carbonizing transport and their impact on biofuels via gasification
    Kyriakos Maniatis, European Commission
    The presentation will address the changes in the EU legislation related to renewable energy with particular focus on advanced biofuels and bioenergy and looking to the 2020-2030 period. On the basis of these changes an attempt will be made to analyse their effect on gasification technologies and related value chains with particular attention to advanced biofuels. Also the new actions from the Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET) will be presented and discussed. Finally, the presentation will address funding opportunities under Horizon 2020 as well as EC funded ongoing projects on these topics.
  • Biomass Gasification in the U.S.
    Vann Bush, GTI
    The U.S. Department of Energy’s integrated biorefinery program concluded an intense period of pilot demonstrations of biomass gasification processes. The subsequent surge in oil and gas supply in the U.S., and concomitant drop in price, suppressed interest in alternative energy options.  Nevertheless, there are specific new opportunities related to local and regional carbon reduction mandates and interest in utilizing wastes and low-cost feedstocks, as well as forest management challenges.  This presentation will discuss the current status and prospects, and related biomass gasification technology needs.  
  • Doubling the output of synthetic biofuels. Exploiting synergies between biomass and other RE sources
    Ilkka Hannula, VTT
    More than twofold increase in biofuel output can be attained by enhancing gasification-based biorefineries with external hydrogen supply. Such enhanced process designs could become economically attractive over non-enhanced designs when the average cost of low-GHG hydrogen falls below 2.2-2.8 e/kg. With hydrogen-enhanced biofuels, 41 - 63 per cent of the EU's road transport fuel demand in 2030 could be produced using only sustainably available wasted and residues.
  • High efficiency electricity production from SRF/ REF through Gasification 
    Vesa Helanti, Valmet
    The increased material recovery targets guided by EU Circular Economy Strategy will restrict the incineration of non-processed or mixed waste in mass burning plants. Instead waste based fuel fractions will be sorted and pretreated, the quantity of waste in total to be used for energy recovery may and same time the pressure for high energy recovery is increased. The electrical efficiency in traditional mass burning plants is suffering from the aggressive corrosion condition in the furnace limiting the accessible steam cycle parameters. The Valmet CFB Gasification process has solved the corrosion issue in a new and different way, avoiding the need to use expensive alloys and in praxis totally released the engineers to select what even steam temperatures and pressures in the steam turbine cycle. Even 540 C superheat temperatures and also reheat cycles are possible and still conventional carbon steels can be used. This solution makes it possible to reach over 30 % net electrical efficiencies and with reheat even get around 35 %. Kymijärvi II reference plant has now operated successfully over 25 000 hours and proven the process. Experiences, plant improvements and lessons learnt during that demonstration period will be summarized in the presentation.
  • Gasification Projects in the Netherlands: The Alkmaar SNG Project
    Thijs de Vries, Gasunie
  • WoodRoll® ultraclean syngas to make a bio-energetic difference 
    Rolf Ljunggren, Cortus
    WoodRoll® is a new technology for thermal gasification of biomass. The WoodRoll® thermal gasification technology is an integrated process for converting wet solid biomass to clean syngas in three steps, drying, pyrolysis and gasification. The process is fully allothermal from wet biomass to clean syngas. Tar and higher hydrocarbons in a pyrolysis gas is incinerated to indirectly generate the heat for the endothermic gasification process. Excess heat is used counter current the biomass processing to syngas. This means that the hot flue gases from the indirect heating of the gasifier is the heat source for the pyrolysis process. Finally, the excess heat from the pyrolysis is enhancing the dryer. In this manner a thermal yield of 80% can be reached for wet biomass to clean syngas.
  • Distributed CHP with cyclone gasification of biomass
    Niclas Davidsson, Meva Energy
    Industrial scale CHP from biomass gasification is a key application as Europe and the world moves towards a more decentralized energy system. Meva Energy has developed a unique technology which accepts 2nd generation biomass such as saw dust, bark and agricultural waste to produce local power and heat. As the feedstocks often are resulting from industrial activity Meva plants specifically can be placed directly at the industry site to produce local power and heat very close to the consumption and also to avoid unnecessary feedstock transports. Meva´s technology is based on converting small fraction feedstock to syngas with entrained flow principle. In 2015 Meva ran successful operational campaigns in it´s first full scale plant, but it was also learnt that the cooling system had to be redesigned. Now, in the autumn of 2016 an upgraded cooling system has been engineered and installed and the company is now preparing for commercial launch.
  • Status quo of the bioliq®-process at KIT
    Bernd Zimmerlin, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
    Synthetic fuels from biomass may contribute to the future fuel supply to a considerable extent. To overcome the logistical limitations arising from the use of large quantities of biomass with low volumetric energy density like straw or forestry residues the bioliq® process has been developed. The process is based on a de-central / central concept and therefore splits up into a de-central pretreatment process to increase the energy density of the biomass by fast pyrolysis, which may take place in a number of regionally distributed plants. The intermediate, also referred to as biosyncrude, enables an economic long-range transportation. Collected from the pyrolysis plants, the biosyncrude is converted into synthesis gas, which is cleaned, conditioned and further converted to synthetic fuels or chemicals in a central plant of economic industrial size.
  • Liquid transportation fuels by biomass steam gasification
    Reinhard Rauch, Technical University Vienna
    At the biomass CHP Güssing, R&D is done by Technical University Vienna and the Centre of Excellence BIOENERGY2020+ on usages of the producer gas from the indirect biomass gasifier for synthesis applications. As the biomass CHP is more than 7000 hours per year in operation, slip streams can be taken and long term experiments with real syngas from biomass can be done. The first investigated synthesis was the methanation to produce BioSNG, afterwards the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (2004), and in 2010 mixed alcohols and production of hydrogen was investigated. In the last years the main focus was on the FT synthesis, where 3 different topics were investigated:
    • production of kerosene for aviation,
    • hybrid systems for combination of wind electricity with biomass gasification,
    • scaling up of the FT technology to 1 barrel/day
    • The presentation is focusing of the last results from the Winddiesel project (hybrid systems) and scaling up.

  • Small scale CHP from bioenergy – experience from Sweden’s first micro gasifier at Emå dairy 
    Karoline Alvånger, Energikontor Sydost
    The use of bioenergy in Sweden is large and expected to increase. Despite this, a relatively large part of the industries uses fossil fuels, having had a generous tax relief for those, but this relief has been decreased and will be phased out shortly. This in combination with the uncertainties concerning future oil prices and increasing environmental awareness of consumers, has encouraged more industries to consider different possibilities to replace fossil fuels with renewables. The speech will show experiences from the first micro scale gasifier installed in Sweden concerning feedstock market, challenges regarding connections between an industry with a diverse temperature profile and a gasifier, as well as a brief outlook for future possibilities. The gasifier was installed during the autumn 2015 at a local dairy with the aim to replace the old fossil-fuel-based heating system and in addition generate part of the electricity to the dairy process. This gasifier is part of a larger project, coordinated by the Energy Agency for Southeast Sweden and financed within the EU LIFE+ program. The aim is to pave the way for a broader application of biomass based combined heat and power and thereby increase the production of local, renewable electricity. Besides from the gasifier, the demonstrations will include two turbine solutions in district heating facilities. The project started in July 2014 and will end in December 2019.

  • Biofuels and renewable chemicals from waste materials: the case of Enerkem and the City of Edmonton 
    Michel Chornet, Enerkem
    Each year, 1.3 billion metric tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) are generated around the world (Source: World Bank, 2012). Approximately 548 million metric tons of this MSW would be suitable for conversion into advanced ethanol and chemicals using Enerkem’s thermochemical technology. Enerkem’s breakthrough technology is capable, in less than 5 minutes, of converting chemically and structurally heterogeneous waste materials (such as MSW) into a pure syngas, which is then turned into biomethanol, ethanol and other renewable chemicals, using commercially available catalysts. The world’s very first full-scale biorefinery to use non-recyclable and non-compostable MSW as a feedstock reached a pivotal milestone when it initiated biomethanol production at the commercial scale – a game-changing success which had never been accomplished before anywhere in the world.

    The Enerkem Alberta Biofuels facility, which was built in partnership with the City of Edmonton and Alberta Innovates – Energy and Environment Solutions, converts the City of Edmonton's MSW into liquid transportation fuels and renewable chemicals – building blocks for olefins and acrylates. The City is seeking to increase its waste diversion rate from 60% to 90%. Enerkem is currently adding an ethanol conversion module, for an ethanol production start planned in 2017, and is developing several biorefineries in North America and globally, based on its modular manufacturing approach.

  • Skive biomass CHP plant: operations experience from the last 5 years and future plans for using the syngas
    Tage Meltofte, Skive Fjernverme
    Skive Fjernvarme (Skive District heating) brought a new groundbreaking gasification unit into operation in 2008. The unit is the largest in the world of its kind with a fluidized bubbling bed gasifier where the gasification gas, after it is catalytically cleaned, drives three gas engines which delivers 6 MW of green power to the Danish power-grid, and 11 MW of district heating to the consumers. Tage Meltofte will report on the impressive operating results seen during the last five years for this unit and also share information about the latest EUDP-project where the possibilities for production of liquid fuels from gasification gases will be highlighted.

  • An update on the GoBiGas project: Experiences from the initial operation
    Malin Hedenskog, Göteborg Energi
    GoBiGas (Gothenburg Biomass Gasification Project) is a major Göteborg Energi project set out to build and operate a bio-SNG production plant based on gasification of forest residues.  Now a demo-plant in industrial size is finalised. Since December 2014 the plant is in operation and delivers Bio-SNG to the Swedish natural gas grid. The GoBiGas demonstration

  • A gasification project temporarily on hold 
    Björn Gillberg, VärmlandsMetanol
    VärmlandsMetanol AB intends to build and operate a commercial biomass to methanol gasification plant in Hagfors, Sweden - strategically located in the forest rich province of Värmland. Forest biomass residue will be converted to synthesis gas for production of fuel grade methanol to be used as a drop in fuel in gasoline. ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions TKIS (former ThyssenKrupp Uhde) is the selected technology provider for the proven Uhde High Temperature Winkler (HTW) gasification process ¬- fluidised bed at a pressure of 27 bar and a temperature of 800 -1000 C. Plant capacity 100,000 t/a of fuel grade biomethanol. Total investment 300 million euros. VärmlandsMetanol´s primary business objective is to develop a “turnkey” concept in cooperation with TKIS and build additional plants in Sweden and other countries rich in forests. At present discussions are taking place with two groups to jump-start biomethanol plants, based on VärmlandsMetanol´s blueprint, in two different countries.

  • An update on the GoBiGas project: Experiences from the initial operation
    Malin Hedenskog, Göteborg Energi
    GoBiGas (Gothenburg Biomass Gasification Project) is a major Göteborg Energi project set out to build and operate a bio-SNG production plant based on gasification of forest residues.  Now a demo-plant in industrial size is finalised. Since December 2014 the plant is in operation and delivers Bio-SNG to the Swedish natural gas grid. The GoBiGas demonstration plant is partly financed by public funding and the operation will thus be evaluated during a 7-year period, and the evaluation results will be made public. A new fuel handling system for forest residues has been installed during spring 2016 and the switch over from wood pellets to forest residues is currently ongoing.

  • BioDRI - Gasified biomass for greener steel
    Carl-Erik Grip, Luleå Technical UniversityA study on the possibility to produce DRI (Directly Reduced Iron), using gasified Biomass, has been studied in a two-year project. The work was done in a consortium consisting of LTU, MEFOS, SP ETC and the industries Sveaskog, BillerudKorsnäs AB, LKAB, Höganäs AB and AGA Linde. It was financed by the Swedish energy agency and co-financed by the project partners. The project included studies on the harvest and logistics for the supply of biomass to a very large consumer, pilot scale gasification experiments, laboratory studies on production and use of DRI and finally a system study on the economy, energy balance and CO2 emission of the total project chain (Forestry-Biomass transport -Gasification-DRI production-DRI use). How should these be connected into a well working system? What is the optimal way to run that system? What is the system net effect on cost, energy consumption and climate gas emission? The study shows that the process is technically possible and can produce a very large reduction in the emission of fossil CO2. However, the cost is higher than the cost for a production chain using fossil reductants.  The possibility to handle that problem is discussed. For Biomass supply the study considered the introduction of a single very large user in the existing regional market. It is also important to study the effect if also other users from different branches use and compete on the same biomass. This is studied in a new project carried out by LTU Swerea MEFOS and five industries.