Annual Report 2010 (4.1 MB) - Danish Technological Institute

Cases > Energy and Climate
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43
Case
22
Biofuel of the future
as pellets
The Danish Technological Institute
and Andritz Feed & Biofuel
A/S, large-scale supplier of pellet
presses, have joined forces to
establish a biomass test facility
south of Kolding, Denmark. This
is where the new types of CO 2
-
neutral fuels are developed and
tested for the benefit of the environment,
power plants and the
alternative energy industry.
Danish consumption of wood pellets
totals one million tonnes annually, a
figure expected to double in the coming
years. Power plants in particular
plan to use far more wood pellets
than the 500,000 tonnes they use
today. However, wood as fuel may
quickly become scarce.
As demand for wood pellets increases,
the future will bring a need for pellets
made of other and new biomasses
such as straw and willow and various
residual products from the processing
of agricultural products. The Danish
Technological Institute and Andritz
Feed & Biofuel A/S have therefore
joined forces to extend the existing
Biomass Test and Demonstration
Plant in Sønder Stenderup, which
can handle biomass for energy in a
laboratory to industrial scale from
pre-treatment, milling and pelleting
to the subsequent analyses. Together
with the other facilities in Sønder
Stenderup, a flexible test facility has
been established to document fullscale
conditions in biomass pelleting.
Tests using various types of biomass
as raw material have to be performed,
and experiments on how to increase
energy density need to be done.
Facility with international outlook
The demand for wood pellets is also
growing strongly in the rest of the
world. Consequently, the international
wood and biopellet sector is interested
in optimising production capacity and
extending the raw material market.
– With the new test facility for biopellets,
we are now able to provide the
sector with the production measurements
that can otherwise be impossible
or highly difficult and expensive
to perform in an operating factory,
explains Head of Section Peter Daugbjerg
Jensen from the Danish Technological
Institute, adding that the
facility can handle several tonnes of
wood pellets per hour, thus allowing
industrial-scale testing. Without doubt
this will strengthen us in our international
cooperation and the work
to support Danish industry growth
in the business area of transforming
biomass to energy.
Kim Behnke from Energinet.dk, which
manages a large part of the Danish
energy research funds, is also thrilled
about the new biopellet test facility:
– The new biopellet facility provides
concrete proof yet again that the
Danish Technological Institute is fully
capable of playing bridge builder
between research and industry in an
area as crucial as increasing the use
of biomass to replace fossil fuels, says
Kim Behnke, who also assesses that
the vast amounts of biomass already
used in Danish power plants are the
result of many years’ fruitful cooperation
between the knowledge institutions
and the power plant sector.