ExCo64 Doc 0x.0x
Proposal for Prolongation
Task 34: Pyrolysis of Biomass
Task Prolongation Proposal
2010-2012
ExCo64
Liege, Belgium
30 September-2 October 2009
Prepared by
Doug Elliott, Task Leader
And
National Team Leads
CONTENTS
1. Proposal Summary Sheet 2
2. INTRODUCTION 4
3. Objective 4
4. Work program 4
4.1 Technical Issues 5
4.2 Meetings 5
4.3 Interaction with industry 6
4.4 Publications 6
4.5 Cooperation with other Tasks 6
4.6 Cooperation with other international programs 7
5. Deliverables 7
6. Schedule and milestones 7
7. Annual budget (US$) 8
8. Country participation 8
9. Task management 8
9.1 Qualifications of individual leading the Task 8
9.2 Proposed Task leader and secretary 9
Task 34: Pyrolysis of Biomass
Prolongation Summary Sheet
Working Period 2010 – 2012
Task Title: Pyrolysis of biomassProposer Name: / Doug Elliott / Phone / +1 509 375 2248
Organisation: / Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) / Fax: / +1 509 372 4732
Address: / 902 Battelle Boulevard
PO Box 999, MSIN P8-60
Richland, Washington 99352
USA / Email: /
Endorsement by ExCo Member of participation country
Country: / USA
Paul Grabowski
Name:
Signature:
Objectives
The Pyrolysis Task will continue the activities of the current Task with a focus on implementation and the market opportunities. The objectives will be to review the field of pyrolysis of biomass and related materials in order to identify both technical and non-technical barriers to more rapid and wider spread implementation of the technology. The Pyrolysis Task will continue the activities of the current Task with a focus on information exchange, technology review, implementation, and assessment of market opportunities. There has been considerable success in interaction between group participants in Case Studies and in Round Robins and these will continue to play a role in the new Task, as identified by the participants.
Work Scope
The scope of the Task will be production and utilization of liquid fuels for heat and power, biofuels and chemicals/byproducts where there is an energetic or economic contribution. In order to meet these objectives every effort will be made to actively involve industry and decision-makers in the Task and interactions with other Tasks will continue to be exploited.
Work Program
The program of work will be based on the traditional approach of IEA Bioenergy with a well- defined technical and non-technical work program which is delegated to Topic Leaders to form small groups of participants to contribute. Regular meetings will include focused seminars and workshops and will also review progress and targets. Information dissemination will be through the biennial Pyrolysis Task newsletter which will continue to be published electronically, and the Task 34 website.
Deliverables
The deliverables will be the newsletter twice a year, the Task 34 website, topic reports, annual reports, and a final report, which is planned to be produced with technical reports from the Task participants, the Topic Leaders and any additional outputs.
Management Qualifications
The Task will be led by Doug Elliott of PNNL USA. Doug Elliott has been involved with IEA Bioenergy activities since 1981 (BLTF, DBL, ALPS, EnvironSystems and Task 10) and most recently he has been the U.S. national team leader to Task 34 before taking on the leadership position. He has been working on liquid products from thermal biomass conversion as a research and development project manager at PNNL with expertise in high-pressure process development since 1974.
Annual budget (US$): $120,000 assuming 6 participating countriesAnnual budget per participant (US$): $20,000
2. INTRODUCTION
The Pyrolysis Task 34 - is widely acknowledged as having made a major contribution to the science, technology and understanding of biomass pyrolysis through the PyNe Newsletter, the website, publications and the many meetings and activities over the past 14 years.
This proposal is to continue Task 34 for a further three years from January 2010 to December 2012. It will continue to emphasize fast pyrolysis of biomass and related materials focusing on markets and implementation in order to support those involved in commercializing and utilizing fast pyrolysis technology for production of liquid fuels, solid char, and other chemical coproducts.
3. Objective
The overall objective of the continuing Task is to improve the rate of implementation and success of fast pyrolysis for fuels and chemicals, where this complements the energetic considerations, by contributing to the resolution of critical technical areas and disseminating relevant information particularly to industry and policy makers. The scope of the Task will be to monitor, review, and contribute to the resolution of issues that will permit more successful and more rapid implementation of pyrolysis technology, including identification of opportunities to provide a substantial contribution to bioenergy. This will be achieved by all the activities described in Section 4 below.
Pyrolysis comprises all steps in a process from reception of biomass in a raw harvested form to delivery of a marketable product as liquid fuel, heat and/or power, chemicals and char byproduct. The technology review may focus on the thermal conversion and applications steps, but implementation requires the complete process to be considered. Process components as well as the total process are therefore included in the scope of the Task, which will cover optimization, alternatives, economics, and market assessment.
The work of the Task will address the concerns and expectations of the following:
· Pyrolysis technology developers, / · Bio-oil applications developers,· Equipment manufacturers, / · Bio-oil users,
· Chemical producers, / · Utilities providers,
· Policy makers, / · Decision makers,
· Investors, / · Planners,
· Researchers
Industry will be actively encouraged to be involved as Task participants, as contributors to Workshops or Seminars, as Consultants, or as technical reviewers of Task outputs to ensure that the orientation and activities of the Task match or meet their requirements.
4. Work program
The main activities of the Task will continue to be focused on resolution of technical issues to aid successful commercial implementation of pyrolysis by:
· Dedicated and focused regular meetings centered on technical Topic Groups,
· Collation and dissemination of relevant information through the regular newsletter, the website, and direct contact between Task participants and invited guests through the planned program of meetings, workshops, and conferences.
This three-year program of work will be predicated on efforts in 2009. The 2009 work plan was approved at ExCo 62 to allow a reorganization and planning period prior to commitment to the 2010-2012 triennium work plan.
4.1 Technical Issues
The existing structure of Topic Groups has proved very successful in promoting a very high level of member participation, attracting a high proportion of industrialists to meetings, and providing a stimulating and lively forum. The potential topics to be included in the new Task are shown in Table 1. These were derived from a list originally identified at the final meeting of the PyNe group in April 2008 and have been modified based on participant input since that time.
Table 1: Priority Topics for Task 34 Prolongation
Norms and standardsAnalysis – methods, comparison, new developments, protocols
Country reports updates/Review of State of the Art
Fuels and chemicals from pyrolysis
A more detailed overview of these topics is provided below:
Norms and Standards
The task will seek to support the implementation of standard methods for the use of bio-oil. Specific efforts will include the establishment of ASTM standards as required for use of bio-oil as a burner fuel, turbine fuel and diesel fuel and input to the REACH process for registering bio-oil for commercial use in Europe.
o Refining pyrolysis oil fuel oil specifications in cooperation with establishing the ASTM bio-oil standards;
o Testing of analytical methods in independent laboratories according to ASTM/CEN directions
o Definition of new quality grades for pyrolysis liquids
o REACH registration for pyrolysis oil in the time frame of 2009-2013, including SIEF information exchange forum, assistance of companies in pyrolysis oil data collection/processing, drafting a new MSDS and chemical safety report
o Preliminary work item (PWI) to EU/CEN
Analysis – methods comparison, new developments, protocols
As bio-oil becomes more widely available, the Task can participate as analytical methods will continue to evolve and be improved.
o implementation of standard methods, particularly assessing the most suitable tests methods for specifications, testing
o development of on-line and standardized methods for water and solids for quality monitoring at pilot plants
Review of State of the Art
This effort has already begun in 2009 in order to provide the basis for this new work plan. National team leads are developing country reports including information and data of commercial as well as R&D efforts in biomass fast pyrolysis. In so doing we will collect:
o Lessons learned -what has happened in industry, accomplishments and failures
o State-of-the-art on bio-oil production and use, pilot/demonstration plants, applications
o State-of-the-art on other bio-oils - energy use/specifications, standards
Develop Fuels and Chemical Products from Bio-oil
The task can also provide input into development of new fuel and chemical products, based on specific interests of the participants:
o chemical recovery
o char for carbon sequestration and soil amendment
o char as template for ceramics (silicon infiltration)
o chemical characterization and methods development for unidentified high-molecular-mass fraction (e.g. ‘sugars’ etc.)
o Demonstrate co-firing of bio-oil for power production
o Demonstrate co-combustion in Diesel engines
IEA Bioenergy, and Task 34 in particular, has found that shared activities such as Round Robins and Technology Assessments lead to a high level of interest and participation by the participants and give a high level of valuable outputs to the member countries. These activities will therefore be implemented as the needs are identified.
4.2 Meetings
Meetings will be held at approximately 6 month intervals and will typically comprise a regular Task meeting with a Seminar or Workshop and/or a Technical Visit. Each Seminar or Workshop will have a theme related to one or possibly two of the Technical Topic Groups. Seminars will feature invited speakers with an emphasis on industrial and commercial organisations and policy makers. This approach has proved very successful in the past Task and has resulted in an excellent two-way interaction between participants of the Task and external organizations. Each meeting will devote a portion of the session to country reports to facilitate exchange of research developments among the participants. The meetings will be open to external participation from those countries participating in the Task.
Joint meetings with other relevant IEA Tasks such as Biorefineries, Gasification, 2nd Generation Biofuels, MSW, Bioenergy Trade, and Socio-economic Drivers will also be held with possible joint initiatives as described below in Section 4.5.
The initial planning for the Task was underway early in 2009 to establish a definitive Work Program that reflects the interests of all participating countries. The Work Program defines the Topic Groups for joint effort on a subject of mutual interest.
4.3 Interaction with industry
Fast pyrolysis is a new technology that offers the unique advantage of producing a liquid directly from biomass in high yield. The much of the recent activity in this area has been at a research level, but more companies are becoming interested in the potential of producing and using a biomass derived liquid fuel and the technology is at an early stage of market penetration. There has been extensive interest by industrialists in the workshops, and this interest will be developed and more workshops and meetings will be held to meet the identified requirements of companies involved in producing and using bio-oil and in producing and using equipment for these purposes.
To achieve this objective, the Task will work with pyrolysis technology developers and providers to help identify and define their problems and help to provide solutions both from within the group and externally. Similarly the Task will co-operate with applications developers and equipment manufacturers to help them understand more about bio-oil and its properties and requirements. This close co-operation is considered the most effective way of identifying and promoting opportunities for bio-oil to make a significant impact on renewable energy supplies.
4.4 Publications
The newsletter will continue to be published at approximately 6-month intervals in electronic format to reduce costs and improve timeliness. Information will be gathered from the Task participants and their contacts throughout the world.
In addition, the Website will be maintained and regularly updated. A number of additional features will be evaluated such as a WIKI site that will be able to share information, and databases of activities and progress in the fast pyrolysis area that will be contributed to and used by the participants in the field. It is planned that the Website will continuously evolve through the duration of the Task to satisfy the requirements of the Task Participants as well as those organisations the Task is trying to serve.
The country reports will be updated and a state of the art manuscript published with a bibliography of significant publications.
4.5 Cooperation with other Tasks
As the emphasis moves more towards commercial exploitation and implementation, greater interaction with other Tasks is planned. In particular, interaction with the Biorefineries Task will grow through mechanisms such as a common project and also with more strategic groups such as the 2nd Generation Biofuels Task to better understand the non-technical issues that affect implementation.
As well as joint meetings and workshops, several of which have already been successfully held within the previous Task with Gasification and Combustion Tasks through the European ThermalNet, it is hoped that the detailed Work Programs of all these Tasks can be formulated to provide projects that can be genuinely shared between Tasks. As an example, there is envisioned to be a joint assessment of a fast pyrolysis biorefinery, or a joint effort on problems with introducing novel liquid fuels to the market place. In particular, The Netherlands has expressed interest in developing a collaboration between Tasks 34 and 42 to facilitate pyrolysis-based biorefineries.
4.6 Cooperation with other international programs
There are many international and national programs with which cooperation will be established, and with whom joint meetings, visits, and activities will be sought, particularly to take advantage of local facilities when arranging the normal program of activities. The Task meeting in 2009 is scheduled to be held in conjunction with the Gas Technology Institute’s 2009 International Conference on Thermochemical Biomass Conversion Science in Chicago, which focuses on fast pyrolysis and gasification. This conference is meant to continue the tradition of the IEA Thermochemical Biomass Conversion Conferences help over the past decades, which Tony Bridgwater organized. Organization of a subsequent conference in 2 to 4 years is a potential topic for Task participation.