Preliminary status note: Thermal biomass conversion technologies ...

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14 gasification of wood waste was recently under construction in the US, but due to poor economy the plant was closed before any higher alcohols were produced (Bloomberg 2011). 2.5.3 Danish strong positions and facilities Haldor Topsøe A/S is a world leader in heterogeneous catalysis and the company has a strong position on several of the fuel synthesis processes. Haldor Topsøe A/S is currently involved in two projects that combine biomass gasification and fuel synthesis at pilot scale: -‐ EU-‐project; BioDME: Haldor Topsøe A/S and partners have in the BioDME EU-‐project already demonstrated the entire technology chain from gasification of black liquor to production of DME and application of the DME in trucks. The scale of the BioDME pilot plant in Piteå, Sweden is 5 tons per day, and the product is distributed to 4 fueling stations, where it is used to fuel 10 Volvo trucks. The necessary technology is therefore present and ready for full-‐scale application (BioDME 2012). -‐DoE-‐project; Green Gasoline from Wood using Carbona gasification and Topsoe TIGAS processes: Haldor Topsøe A/S is currently constructing a 22.5 bpd pilot unit in Chicago, USA for demonstration of gasoline production from wood gasification. The conversion of syngas to gasoline has previously been demonstrated by Haldor Topsøe A/S, but the gasification of wood results in the formation of tar, which subsequently must be converted to syngas in a so-‐caller tar reformer. The tar reformer is the part of the technology that requires the most substantial improvements before the technology is industrially viable. Haldor Topsøe A/S has, in collaboration with the plant providing distributed heating in Skive, Denmark, worked on the demonstration of tar reforming at low pressure, but a potential verification of tar reforming at elevated pressure awaits the abovementioned DoE pilot plant tests (US Dept. of Energy, 2012). Haldor Topsøe A/S is also involved in various collaborations where the company supplies technology/catalysts for processes for production of liquid fuel from syngas. These collaborations involve: -‐Carbona/Andritz: Tecnology supplier of processes for gasification of bio-‐material -‐Chemrec: Technology supplier of processes for black liquor gasification. Host for gasification pilot facilities. -‐GTI (Gas Technology Institute): Host for gasification based pilot facilities -‐Haldor Topsøe A/S, DONG, Risø and DTI: Partners in the Gasolution project At the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) there have been significant research efforts on the syntheses of methanol and mixed higher alcohols. At the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, DTU experimental facilities are available for catalyst preparation and for investigations of syngas conversion processes at industrially relevant conditions (Christensen et al. 2009, 2010, 2011 & 2012, Studt et al. 2012). 2.5.4. Perspectives Fuels produced from biomass have a large potential, and the synthesis technology is essentially in place. Currently the primary limitation for a wider application of these fuel production technologies is that the economic driving force is insufficient. The construction of a large scale biomass conversion plant requires a substantial investment. As an example studies for plants processing 75-‐85 tons of wood per hour estimate the required capital investment to be in the range of 200-‐400 mio. US$ (Hamelinck & Faaij 2006, Phillips 2007 & 2011). To accept such an investment the investors would need to be relatively certain that it is economically attractive to produce sustainable fuels – not only at the moment but also over a period of 10-‐
15 years. Currently it may require political initiatives to ensure this long-‐term attractiveness of the production of fuels from sustainable resources. 2.5.5. References BioDME project web page, http://www.biodme.eu/, accessed March 2012. 15 Bloomberg web page, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-‐12-‐02/range-‐fuels-‐cellulosic-‐ethanol-‐plant-‐ fails-‐as-‐u-‐s-‐pulls-‐plug.html, published December 2011, accessed March 2012. C. D. Chang, A. J. Silvestri, The Conversion of Methanol and Other O-‐Compounds to Hydrocarbons over Zeolite Catalysts; J. Catal. 47 (1977) 249-‐259. J. M. Christensen, P. M. Mortensen, R. Trane, P. A. Jensen, A. D. Jensen, Effects of H2S and process conditions in the synthesis of mixed alcohols from syngas over alkali promoted cobalt-‐molybdenum sulfide, Appl. Catal. A 366 (2009) 29-‐43. J. M. Christensen, P. A. Jensen, N. C. Schiødt, A. D. Jensen, Coupling of alcohols over alkali-‐promoted cobalt–molybdenum sulfide, ChemCatChem 2 (2010) 523-‐526. J. M. Christensen, P. A. Jensen, A. D. Jensen, Effects of feed composition and feed impurities in the catalytic conversion of syngas to higher alcohols over alkali-‐promoted cobalt-‐molybdenum sulfide, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 50 (2011) 7949-‐7963. J. M. Christensen, L. D. L. Duchstein, J. B. Wagner, P. A. Jensen, B. Temel, A. D. Jensen, Catalytic conversion of syngas into higher alcohols over carbide catalysts, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 51 (2012) 4161-‐4172. P. Courty, P. Chaumette, C. Rimbault, P. Travers, Production of methanol-‐higher alcohol mixtures from natural gas via syngas chemistry, Oil Gas Sci. Technol. 45 (1990) 561-‐578. M. E. Dry, Practical and theoretical aspects of the catalytic Fischer-‐Tropsch process; Appl. Catal. A 138 (1996) 319-‐344. M. E. Dry, High quality diesel via the Fischer–Tropsch process – a review, J. Chem. Technol. Biotechnol. 77 (2001) 43-‐50. M. E. Dry The Fischer-‐Tropsch process: 1950-‐2000, Catal. Today 71 (2002) 227-‐241. C. N. Hamelinck, A.P. C. Faaij, H. den Uil, H. Boerrigter, Production of FT transportation fuels from biomass; technical options, process analysis and optimisation, and development potential; Energy 29 (2004) 1743-‐ 1771.
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