BP and Johnson Matthey license its Fischer-Tropsch technology to Fulcrum BioEnergy
Type of post: NEWS IN BRIEF.
Fulcrum
BioEnergy is building a waste-to-fuels plant in the Tahoe-Reno Industrial
Center (Nevada, USA). The plant was initially scheduled to start operations in
2017. However, the company broke ground on the Sierra BioFuels Plant (Sierra) last
May and the new expected data for the start-up is the first quarter of 2020. Sierra
will convert approximately 175,000 tons of household garbage into more than 10.5
million gallons of fuel each year.
Related posts:
- “Abengoa
to start the construction of a biorefinery producing biofuels from MSW in
Nevada”, 9/11/2017.
The plant will be based on gasification and Fischer-Tropsch
(FT) processes to produce jet fuel. It was already known that Fulcrum had
licensed the gasification system from ThermoChem Recovery International. Now, BP and Johnson
Matthey (JM) have signed an agreement with Fulcrum to license their FT
technology.
Press releases:
- “BP
and Johnson Matthey license innovative waste-to-fuels technology to biofuels
producer Fulcrum BioEnergy”, 25/9/2018.
- “JM
and BP license waste-to-fuels technology to Fulcrum BioEnergy”, 25/9/2018.
Figure 1. Fulcrum President and CEO (Jim Macias)
and BP Vice President – Technology, Commercialization and Ventures (David
Gilmour) observing operations at the Sierra BioFuels Feedstock Processing
Facility (extracted from Fulcrum website)
BP and JM have developed a simple-to-operate FT
technology that can work both at large and small scale to economically convert
synthesis gas (generated from sources such as municipal solid waste and other
biomass) into long-chain hydrocarbons suitable for the production of diesel and
jet fuels. Both companies have been searching the technology for over 30 years
and in 1996 joined forces to further develop it. According to the press
releases, together they have created a system that delivers three times the
productivity of a conventional multi-tubular fixed bed reactor and halves the
capital expenditure when compared to traditional FT reactors. BP and JM won the
Research Project Award and the Oil and Gas Award at the prestigious IChemE
Awards in November 2017 for their work on this technology.