EMPYRO Project – New commercial scale fast pyrolysis plant

A commercial scale plant demonstrating fast pyrolysis technology was opened in Hengelo (Netherlands) in May 2015 as part of the activities of the EMPYRO Project (7th Framework Programme of the European Commission, grant number 239357). In fact, this project was born to design, build and operate a 25MW fast pyrolysis plant for simultaneous production of electricity, process steam, fuel oil and organic acids from woody biomass.

Figure 1. EMPYRO fast pyrolysis plant (extracted from www.empyro.nl)

At full production, the facility will produce about 76 tons pyrolysis oil per day based on 120 tons per day of biomass. The plant is a reference for BTG-BTL pyrolysis technology and the sustainable fuel oil produced can be used on-site, sold to a regional customer or exported. Since 1993, BTG has played an active role in numerous projects on fast pyrolysis with its patented pyrolysis technology RCR (Rotating Cone Reactor) that characterizes by an intense mixing without the need for an inert carrier gas. BTG-BTL has taken BTG's concept and engineered it into a commercial industrial installation.

The process consists of the following stages (see Figure 2): 

1. Biomass particles are fed near the bottom of the pyrolysis reactor together with an excess flow of sand, which acts as circulating heat carrier material. 
2. The biomass and sand are mixed within the pyrolysis reactor and converted into pyrolysis oil vapors, gas and char. 
3. The produced vapors and gasses pass through several cyclones before entering the condenser, in which the vapors are quenched by re-circulated oil. 
4. The sand and char are transported to a fluidized bed combustor, where air is added to combust the char and reheat the sand. 
5. The hot sand is then transported back to the reactor to close the loop.

Figure 2. Simplified flow diagram of the BTG-BTL pyrolysis process (extracted from www.btg-btl.com)

On the other hand, at the opening of the EMPYRO pyrolysis plant the Pyrolysis platform has been launched. If you want to go into detail about pyrolysis, you should visit its web. The Pyrolysis platform (www.pyroknown.eu) is dedicated to sharing knowledge and learning about biomass fast pyrolysis. On the platform, knowledge is shared in four ways: 

• PyroWiki: all relevant information about pyrolysis is shared in this wiki. 
• PyroWebinar: webinars about pyrolysis and related projects. 
• PyroMovies: movies about several aspects of pyrolysis. 
• PyroLearn: In this section, courses about pyrolysis can be followed. 

The pyrolyis platform is intended to be an open platform, not limited to any particular technology.