SPIRE 2 2014: Adaptable industrial processes allowing the use of renewables as flexible

feedstock for chemical and energy applications - Matchmaking Brussels 31/01/2014

Update 140113

Project name (tbc).

Move to biomass, Move2bio; Biomass in operations, Biomops; Ursula;

Scientific/technological challenges that the project will address.

The valorization of biomass for different applications such as energy, by-products and intermediates
for chemical production is a key factor for the development of bio-based products which leads to
preserving natural resources and contributing to the green economic growth.
However, one of the major barriers for the deployment of infrastructure for biomass valorization is
that many biomass sources are available seasonally, locally and are subject to fluctuation which
causes several challenges in terms of full time large scale plant operation and makes the whole
business model questionable.
Being operational where the biomass is, the below described technologies will also contribute to
revigorate the local economical development in remote areas across Europe (societal challenge).

Project Objectives

The proposed project aims at solving the above mentioned challenge by developing integratedtechnologies in a containerized and portable way for the valorization of different sources of biomass
such as compost, energy crops, hay, grass, manure, straw, prunnings, round logs, saw dust, wood
chips, algae, sludge etc targeting several applications such as Energy, animal feed, fertilizer, animal
bedding, gardening, biofuels, building materials, biopolymers and bio-aromatics
The consortium is aiming to respond to the above mentionned SPIRE 2 call.
Use of biomass, residues and waste gases as feedstock/raw materials in industry to produce green
chemical building blocks and energy is expected to increase significantly in the coming years. This
will play a vital role in the establishment of a more sustainable and low carbon industry.
However, the increased use of biomass, residues and waste gases as feedstock/raw materials in
industry poses a number of challenges that need to be addressed, such as seasonal and fragmented
availability, short harvesting windows, environmental challenges, variable availability and/or quality
of supply, and presumed competition with animal or human food supply. In addition, it is important to
develop highly efficient equipment using novel techniques and evaluate the use of biomass and
residues as feedstock for co-firing in industrial processes to detect potential operational problems
(logistic).
Changing markets and making new links in the value chains will be an added challenge in the future
production systems based on cross sectorial integration.
These challenges have to be overcome in order to allow increased utilisation of biomass residues and
waste gases in the industry.
New approaches have demonstrated that small mobile and flexible units with chemical processing and
process intensification capabilities could provide several advantages in comparison to fixed facilities,
such as operation in a distributed manner and mobility to different locations providing higher
flexibility.

Current partnership

The current Consortium is formed by several SMEs and initiated by Tuzetka (a Belgian SME) who
has developed and demonstrated Micromilling and Pellets production technologies in situ with an
appropriate readiness level
a) Nettenergy (SME) produces renewable energy and material on the basis of plant biomass.
We specialize in:
- Developing the innovative 2nd generation flash pyrolysis technology PyroFlash
- Producing high quality pyrolysis oil (3% water content, HHV 24 MJ/kg)
Matchmaking Suschem 31/01/2013 Spire 2 contact: patrick@2zk.eu

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Nettenergy focuses on local markets in which the raw material (wood, grass, crop residues) for the
pyrolysis process are already present. Nettenergy enables owners of this resource (municipalities,
forest managers, farmers) to generate electricity and heat. Nettenergy introduces a unique concept:
the mobile pyrolysis plant PyroFlash.
b) Tuzetka-2ZK (SME) supplies equipment (the micromill) and know how to process large
quantities of biomass such as wood, agro waste and herbaceous biofuels.
After processing, the biomass is sold for various bio-based purposes: energy, biopolymers,
animal bedding, etc. The production can be exported or used locally. The technology
developed is allowing a large biobased product-market range. Tuzetka provides communities
and local district authorities with the logistics and technical infrastructure to move away from
the use of fossil fuels for their energy needs, initially concentrating on communal district
heating i.e. by implementing a bioenergy trade centre.
d) True Energy has developped a containerized gazifier able to convert local biomass into valuable
energy carrier. The highly innovative gasification technology that has specific applications in the
thermal-chemical gasification of different kinds of biomass or other carbonaceous feedstock.
The technology is based on a new gasifier design concept: Top Reduction Updraft Gasification. Our
TRUTM technology has the following advantages:
-very efficient gasification of all carbon, resulting in ultra low particulate emissions and virtually no
soot
-advanced reactor design and reaction kinetics, with no dioxin & furans and extremely low NOx
emissions
-very small physical footprint, specifically a significant reduction in gasifier height
-very broad feedstock spectrum with very high moisture content such as Municipal Solid Waste and
fresh agricultural and horticultural waste
-automated operation ideal for distributed deployment in remote areas.
Among the objectives, the conversion of local syngaz into bioDME and others related by products
(typically methanol and N2).
e) Regions of Europe (tbc): 5 to 6 biomass sourcing areas across Europe.
Lorraine, Phalsbourg (FR), Liguria (IT), Castilla & Leon (ES), Ivano Frankivsk (Ukraine), Bosnia,
What is the feedstock availability, what, who are the competitors? Price to mobilize the biomass?
Socio economics impact?
Objectives: to skill the local energy agency (as example) and staff for promoting sustainable biomass
use for energy and other semi finished products.
The biomass activities will be managed under the umbrella of a Bioenergy Trade Centre (i.e. with
contribution of others renewable energy sources or energ storage). Each sourcing partner would
have the duty to disseminate the knowledge to others regional partners.
The idea is also to trigger the investments near funding surces like FEDER or the European
Investment Bank (or EBD for Cenral Europe) what means the necessity to aggregate several projects.
A GIS system is already developed by the CIEMAT: Bioraise (http://bioraise.ciemat.es/bioraise/)
f) Industries:
- SITA: Member o the French Group Suez Environment, SITA is developping the concept of waste as
raw maerial for the biobased economy.
- others

Innovativeness with respect to the state of the art.

The Micromill is a fully portable densification equipment able to process 3tons of biomass per hour.
The equipment is equipped with shredding, drying, milling and pelletizing devices able to process
where the biomass is. The output is a the dried biomass in powder, pellets, briquettes. The particle
size of the material can range from 80 microns up to 3-5mm.
The micromill is hydraulic powershifting with a main thermal motor fuelled with disel, biodiesel.
Pyrolisis oil is an adhoc fully renewable fuel.
Matchmaking Suschem 31/01/2013 Spire 2 contact: patrick@2zk.eu

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The Pyroflash is fully autonomous equipment able to pyrolize various kind of biomass (wood,
miscanthus) ideally under the pellet format.
Among the outputs, the pyrolisis oil and/or the syngaz are two primary fuels usable by the micromill.
Additional products based on wood acid are useful for bio-aromatics purpose.
The True Energy containerized gazifier will deliver additional energy carrier suitable for energy
purpose either in very close locations of the biomass feedstock (upsream) either at the gate of the
customers (downstream).
The combined equipments in operation will be able to mobilize various kind of untapped raw material
available in remote areas. The concept is highly replicable by adding more units and in his respect is
unique on the market.

Describe partners sought.

The consortium is seeking partners from the chemical sector who have developed chemical processes
and process intensifications for the valorization of biomass, or end users of the expected by-products.
The consortium is seeking also other members of the SPIRE community who can use the generated
by-products (e.g. pellets for energy production, etc) or who could provide (>use) valuable biomass
feedstock in order to extend the product-market range.
The consortium is expected to closely work with existing R&D project:
- OPTIMA is developping the potential of high yielding grasses in Mediterranan aras.
- Grass Margin is study the potential for using different types of grass species under
challenging climatic conditions (e.g. drought, salinity, flood and cold) to develop high
yielding biofuel crops.
- OPTIMISC is to optimize the miscanthus bioenergy and bioproduct chain.

Budget.

6-10 millions: lower threshold is targeted i.e. 5-7Mios.

See extensive call below under 8

Matchmaking Suschem 31/01/2013 Spire 2 contact: patrick@2zk.eu

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Pathways for biomass mobilization.

Biomass
mobilizing and densification pathways
All biomas: Solid
densification in
situ
2ZK, portable
micromill

True Energy:
moistened
biomass
>60%

Pellets, powder: solid

raw material ready for
the markets
Energy
(heat):
industries,
district
heating

Pyrolisis in situ:
Nettenergy,
PyroFlash

Farming:
bedding,
feeding

semi
finished raw
material

Fuelchemical
sector
(biofuels2G)

building
industry

biopolymers

packaging

primary fuel:
syngaz and
pi-oil (30%)
biotransport &
power:
electric
loading
stations,
marine fuel

Syngaz

bioaromatics
(30%)

biochar
(30%)

chemical
sector

bio heat &

organic
farming

Matchmaking Suschem 31/01/2013 Spire 2 contact: patrick@2zk.eu

DME transport

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Stationnary
plants: biogaz,
pellet plants,..

Call (extensive version).

SPIRE 2 2014: Adaptable industrial processes allowing the use of renewables as flexible
feedstock for chemical and energy applications
Specific challenge: Use of biomass, residues and waste gases as feedstock/raw materials in
industry to produce green chemical building blocks and energy is expected to increase
significantly in the coming years. This will play a vital role in the establishment of a more
sustainable and low carbon industry. However, the increased use of biomass, residues and waste
gases as feedstock/raw materials in industry poses a number of challenges that need to be
addressed, such as seasonal and fragmented availability, short harvesting windows,
environmental challenges, variable availability and/or quality of supply, and presumed
competition with animal or human food supply.
In addition, it is important to develop highly efficient equipment using novel techniques and
evaluate the use of biomass and residues as feedstock for co-firing in industrial processes to
detect potential operational problems. Changing markets and making new links in the value
chains will be an added challenge in the future production systems based on cross sectorial
integration. These challenges have to be overcome in order to allow increased utilisation of
biomass residues and waste gases in the industry.
New approaches have demonstrated that small mobile and flexible units with chemical processing
and process intensification capabilities could provide several advantages in comparison to fixed
facilities, such as operation in a distributed manner and mobility to different locations providing
higher flexibility. This could provide convenient business opportunities especially for processes
presenting a variable feed supply, fragmented feedstock availability and/or need for mobility to
different locations to maximise usage time.
Scope: Projects should develop new processes or improved valorisation approaches that would
provide efficient biomass, residue and waste gas conversion (or biomass pre-treatment for further
refining) while developing a fully integrated system and the associated equipment for
downstream use.
These processes should allow an increased utilisation of renewables (where economically and
technically favourable relative to other potential applications) as feedstock for the production of
chemicals (including intermediates) and/or fuels as part of an integrated approach to optimise
resource and energy efficiency. Such processes should be presented with a containerised, flexible
and scalable approach allowing for (pre-) processing of biomass, residues and waste gases at
locations closer to the supply. The proposed solutions should be able to cope with the seasonal or
even daily fluctuations of the renewable source to be used. In this respect the unit should also be
able to process feedstock from different sources in order to guarantee the level of supply.
The proposed solutions should provide economically viable alternatives to current practice in
biomass processing and demonstrate business feasibility. Moreover, new innovative technologies
and approaches are expected to substitute the current fossil fuels by renewables as feedstock.
LCA and LCC analysis for the proposed processes is needed in order to prove the sustainability
of the solutions. It is desirable to develop and demonstrate a multi-sectorial and replicable
methodology for increasing the renewable resources integration in industrial processing. It is
expected that high amounts of biomass, residues and waste gases will be further used in energy
intensive industries, enhancing the efficiency in the use of these resources.
Substantial demonstration activities in conjunction with the development of solution-adapted
equipment are expected.
For this topic, proposals should include an outline of the initial exploitation and business plans.
Wherever possible, proposers could actively seek synergies, including possibilities for cumulative
funding, with relevant national / regional research and innovation programmes and/or European
Matchmaking Suschem 31/01/2013 Spire 2 contact: patrick@2zk.eu

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Structural and Investment Funds in connection with smart specialisation strategies.

Exploitation plans, outline financial arrangements and any follow-up should be developed during
the project.
Activities expected to focus on Technology Readiness Level 5-71.
A significant participation of SMEs with R&D capacities is encouraged.
The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between EUR 6
and 10 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless,
this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Expected impact:
- Economically viable solutions and technologies allowing a reduction in fossil resources
intensity of at least 30%, compared to current practices (for already optimal processes the
savings could also come from reduction in fossil energy for feedstock transportation). It
should lead to increased utilisation of renewables in the industry as feedstock for the
production of chemicals (and/or intermediates) and/or fuels as part of an integrated
approach to optimise energy efficiency with a proven sustainability, taking into account
environmental issues and competition with food. In addition, the solutions are expected to
contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
-

The technologies developed should integrate well in the current industrial landscape
providing finished products and/or intermediate and building blocks that could be
processed in already existing industries.

They could also show a direct or indirect impact on rural areas, arising from the increased
use of biomass and residues production locally.

Type of action: Innovation Actions

Technology demonstration level

Matchmaking Suschem 31/01/2013 Spire 2 contact: patrick@2zk.eu

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