Refuelling with Straw
- .
- On Campus North of the KIT, the bioliq pilot plant will produce from straw and other residual matter first an oil-like pre-product and then from this tailored esigner fuels. Photo: KIT
Residual plant matter such as straw or wood shavings can be processed to make high-quality fuels, as researchers from the KIT have shown on a small scale already some years ago. The ecological balance of such synthesis fuels is much better than that of fuels derived from rapeseed oil or other energy plants, for which separate cultivation ground are reserved, fertilised and watered. In cooperation with industry partners such as Lurgi GmbH, MUT Advanced Heating GmbH from Jena and Chemieanlagenbau Chemnitz GmbH, the KIT is building a pilot plant, which is now nearing its completion. The bioliq® process is comprised of several steps: First, the dry biomass is converted into an oil-like intermediary product with high energy density by way of fast pyrolysis in regionally spread out plants. This intermediary product can be easily transported for further processing. In later large-scale plants further steps take place. By way of innovative procedures, some steps could be pooled in the bioliq® pilot plant into one single process step. At the plant, the energy-rich intermediary product is converted into a highly reactive synthesis gas comprised of carbon monoxide and hydrogen molecules with the aid of an entrained-flow gasifier. “These chemical building blocks can be put together in the next step to create any designer fuels one likes”, explains Dr. Nicolas Dahmen, project manager for building the bioliq plant. “The pilot plant will be able to produce 100 litres designer fuel per hour, this is not yet on industrial scale, but allows for encompassing fuel and vehicle tests”, says Dahmen. And those are the precondition for the process finding wider application.
