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The Carbon Trust is calling for Expressions of Interest from potential partners within the scientific community to collaborate in the development of a world-class commercially viable pyrolysis oil upgrading process. The Carbon Trust will potentially invest £5m to one or more commercially-focussed research projects in this area of advanced biofuels over next 3-5 years.
As part of its mission to accelerate the move to a low carbon economy, the Carbon Trust has identified pyrolysis oil from sustainable sources of biomass as having the potential to produce low-cost fuels with low system greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions - if it can be integrated into a conventional refinery. However, the properties of the oil produced from current fast pyrolysis processes are far from suitable for direct integration. The Pyrolysis Challenge aims to produce oil with the properties required for integration either by modifying the pyrolysis process to produce better quality oil directly; or upgrading the oil before or at the refinery.
The Carbon Trust is therefore seeking a potentially wide range of partners to work with, who will commit an element of matching support to deliver a breakthrough in this area. Partners may include refinery technology developers, catalyst developers and research organisations involved in the study of pyrolysis processes, bioenergy and relevant related disciplines.
Through applied research and development, the expected outcomes of the Pyrolysis Challenge include:
• Proof of scientific and engineering principle for a novel process for low-cost and low GHG intensity upgrading of biomass pyrolysis oil
• Complete characterisation of the upgraded oil, including details of characterisation processes and the impact of different feedstocks
• An assessment of the likely commercial and environmental value of any associated co-products and processes for their exploitation
• Development of a large lab-scale or small industrial demonstration unit
• Modelling of the full scale process economics, whole system GHG intensity and key technical parameters
Mark Williamson, Director of Innovations at the Carbon Trust commented:
“The recent EU announcement that Britain has to generate 15% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020 changes the entire energy equation for the UK. Energy from sustainable sources of biomass could have a major role in reducing green house gas emissions from transport. However, many ‘first generation’ biofuel supply chains offer only limited reduction in carbon emissions and their adoption has been driven by other factors. The Carbon Trust therefore seeks to increase the rate at which more advanced ‘second generation’ technologies, that do have the potential to deliver sustainable low-carbon biofuels, come to market.
The Pyrolysis Challenge is the first of several potential strands of the Carbon Trust Bioenergy Accelerator, focussed on the sustainable bioenergy challenge. Other areas of focus may include Algae Biomass Systems and Novel Biofuels.”
Full details of the process for submission of an Expression of Interest are available on The Carbon Trust website at: www.carbontrust.co.uk/directedresearch
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