ENK5-2002-00634 Efficient and clean production of electricity from biomass via pyrolyses oil and hydrogen utilizing fuel cells

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Website: www.bio-electricity.tnw.utwente.nl/ecinfo.php
Summary Information



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EESD (Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development) : Electricity : Thermochemical Conversion

Proposal No:	ENK5-2002-00634
Date Prepared:	February 2004
Source:	European Bio-Energy Projects (EUR 20808)

Introduction

Although the conversion of biomass into pyrolysis oil has been developed to a mature stage, the pyrolysis oil has to be free of particulates before it can be used as feedstock for syngas production. Research will therefore focus on the in situ cleaning of the hot pyrolysis vapours using a filter, cyclone, or rotating separator and studies of periodical flow reversal to de-block the filter elements and de-dust the fluid bed off-gases.

Particular emphasis will be placed on the coupling of catalytic materials with reactor configurations so as to achieve optimal operation of the reformer system for reforming pyrolysis oil to H₂ for MCFC electricity production. The water-gas shift and the post combustion reactions have been extensively investigated. In contrast, the process of reformation of the pyrolysis oil with steam (hydrogen donor) has not been studied to any appreciable extent and for this reason it will be the main technical focus of the project.

Of prime importance is the development of efficient low-cost catalytic materials for the reforming reactions that will exhibit sufficiently high activity and, more important, acceptable stability with time-on-stream. Therefore, only specific technological problems originating from the particular fuel used will be addressed. Other problems to be solved include the energy analysis and economic evaluation, and lab-scale testing in single fuel cell elements.

Progress

The project started with a kick-off meeting of the partners on January 2003.

Impact and Exploitation

Expected benefits of the bio-electricity process are a high efficiency, no emission of greenhouse gases, low overall emission of harmful pollutants, and zero emission at the electricity production site. Upon completion of the project, sufficient knowledge will be available to design and build an integrated fuel processing system, which converts biomass into hydrogen-rich feed gas for molten carbonate fuel cells. Such a fuel processor will be tested on a scale of 5 kWe, while the gas quality will be demonstrated by application in laboratory fuel cells.

Results of academic and applied research carried out by the universities and research institutes, will be used by industrial partners to develop and commercialize the bio-oil electricity system. Commercial implementation of bio-oil production technology is expected within the next decade.

The complementary industrial partners in the project, including a MCFC developer and a catalyst manufacturer, provide together an excellent prospect for the implementation of the proposed technology for clean production of heat and electricity from bio-oil at remote, out-of-grid locations.