Profile: Nettenergy - The autarkic mobile pyrolysis plant
Type of post: COMPANY PROFILE.
The company
Nettenergy BV is a Dutch company devoted to develop technology and manufacture mobile
installations to convert biomass into energy and valuable products. It started
in 2006 and, from the beginning, the flash pyrolysis process formed the basis
for its technology. The firm is focused on local markets in which the raw
materials (wood, grass, crop residues) for the pyrolysis process are already
present. Nettenergy enables owners of these resources (municipalities, forest
managers, farmers…) to generate electricity, heat and biobased products.
Figure 1. The autarkic mobile
pyrolysis plant of Nettenergy (courtesy of Nettenergy)
Nettenergy BV is specialized
in:
- Developing innovative and
scalable pyrolysis technology.
- Manufacturing of
installations based on its proprietary technologies.
- Licensing its technology to
third parties.
It uses an international
network of business partners to serve local markets.
The technology
The pyrolysis technology of
Nettenergy comes from its own research and development activities; there is no
collaboration with universities or other companies in this domain.
Nevertheless, there is active collaboration with third parties and universities
to develop applications of the pyrolysis products.
Its last version of the
technology, marketed under the name PyroFlash, includes a new reactor design
and an innovative separation process. It is characterised by:
- A robust reactor. Its design
combines high yield with high capacity and it can handle a wide variety of biomass
qualities. In addition, it can be started quickly.
- Generation of several
products simultaneously. It can produce several fractions directly from the
biomass in its separation section: biochar, bio-oil, wood acid and wood gas.
- Compact design. One of the
design criteria for this technology was that it should require little ground
space and be light.
The concept
The concept introduced by Nettenergy
is the autarkic mobile pyrolysis plant. This mobile plant can locally convert
biomass into products based on the PyroFlash technology. The fast start-up and
easy operation allows the use at multiple locations in a short period of time.
Nettenergy offers mobile units
that can be taken to the source of the biomass in two processing capacity options:
2 tons/day and 10 tons/day. The unit needs to be placed outside the container for
operation. The wood gas can be used to feed the gas generator. In this way, the
mobile unit can be made self-supporting in its energy usage. No diesel or connection
to the electrical grid is required.
The products
Biochar
Roughly 10% of the biomass is
converted to this product. It can directly be used as an end product or also be
further processed into powder or pellets.
Pyrolysis Oil
Nettenergy introduces these bio-oils
in the market under the name Nettoil. Two qualities can be distinguished: dry
oil (w% water = 3; HHV = 24 MJ/kg; solid at room temperature) and wet oil (w%
water = 20; HHV = 17 MJ/kg; liquid at room temperature).
Wood vinegar
Wood vinegar or pyroligneous
acid is a water fraction of a red brown colour. It is rich in carbonic acids
and also contains some residual tar.
Woodgas
It is directly available as
product. It is not used for heating media in the process. Using a gas generator
it can be transferred into electricity. There is enough wood gas to support the
installation electricity demand. It is rich in hydrogen (10%) and burns with a
colorless flame.
Figure 2. Some of the products of the Nettenergy
technology: A – Biochar; B – Pyrolysis Oil; C – Wood Vinegar (courtesy of Nettenergy)
Acknowledgements: I would like to express my appreciation to Rob Vasbinder (Director of Nettenergy) for his kind collaboration.
