Fast pyrolysis plants

Type of post: OVERVIEW.

Posts: PYROLYSIS OIL PLATFORM.

Fast pyrolysis

Process	Rapid thermal decomposition of organic compounds in the absence of oxygen to produce liquids, char and gas.
Temperature	Around 500ºC.
Residence time	0.5 - 2 s
Typical yields distribution	- Oil: 60-70%. - Char: 12-15%. - Gas: 13-25%.
Bio-oil characteristics	- Low viscosity, dark-brown fluid. - Carboxylic acids: 4-6 w%. - Aldehydes, ketones, furans, pyrans, monomeric phenols: 15-20 w%. - Sugars: 25-35 w%. - Water: 20-30 w%. - Pyrolytic lignin, extractives, solids (including ash), polymerisation products: 20-25 w%.
Bio-oil applications	- Heating fuel. - Production of advanced biofuels. - Production of food ingredients. - Production of bitumen and coatings.

Figure 1. Pyrolysis oil (taken from BTG website)

Fast pyrolysis plants

Companies (Project)	Technology	Location	Feedstock	Processing capacity (kg/h)	Production capacity (ML/year)	Start-up	Status
Red Arrow (5 plants) [1]	RTP (Ensyn)	Wisconsin (USA)	Wood residues	Up to 1.750 [1]	-	[1]	Operational
BTG-BTL and Genting Sanyen Bhd	RCR (BTG)	Malaysia	Palm-oil industry residues	2.000	- [2]	2005 [3]	Shut down
Dynamotive Energy Systems	Bubbling Fluidized Bed	West Lorne (Ontario, Canada)	Wood residues	4.150	-	2005 [4]	Shut down
Ensyn	RTP (Ensyn)	Renfrew (Ontario, Canada)	Wood residues	3.500	12	2006 [5]	Operational
Dynamotive Energy Systems	Bubbling Fluidized Bed	Guelph (Ontario, Canada)	Wood residues	8.300	-	2008	Shut down
KIT (Bioliq project)	Twin-screw mixing reactor (KIT)	Karlsruhe (Germany)	Agriculture residues	500	2	2010	Operational
Savon Voima Oyj [10]	Fluid bed (Valmet Technologies Oyj)	Joensuu (Finland)	Wood residues	10.000	50	2013	Operational
Twence (EMPYRO Project)	RCR (BTG)	Hengelo (Netherlands)	Wood residues	5.000	20	2015 [6]	Operational
Ensyn, Arbec Forest Products and Groupe Rémabec (Cote Nord Project)	RTP (Ensyn)	Port-Cartier, (Quebec, Canada)	Wood residues	9.000	40	2018 [7]	Start-up
Green Fuel Nordic Oy	RCR (BTG)	Lieksa (Finland)	Wood residues	5.000	20	2020 [8]	Operational.
Preem and Setra	-	Setra Kastet Sawmill in Gävle (Sweden)	Wood residues	-	21 [9]	2021	Under planning
Ensyn and Fibria Celulose S.A.	RTP (Ensyn)	Aracruz (Espirito Santo, Brazil)	Wood residues	-	83	-	Under planning
Ensyn and Renova Capital Partners	RTP (Ensyn)	Dooley County (Georgia, USA)	Wood residues	-	76	-	Under planning
[1] Red Arrow, Ensyn’s partner in the food chemicals business, owns and operates five commercial RTP plants in Wisconsin. The three largest units each process 30-40 dry tons/day of wood residues and were commissioned in 1995, 2002 and 2014 respectively. The biocrude generated in these units is used for the production of food ingredients and for heating fuels. Ensyn provides Red Arrow with the following services: operations supervision, maintenance and technical support. In 2015, Red Arrow was acquired by the Kerry Group, the global taste and nutrition and consumer foods group. Ensyn is now collaborating with Kerry by continuing to provide operations and management services. [2] The production capacity of this demonstration plant was 1.2 ton/h of pyrolysis oil. Over 1,000 tons of oil were produced during the trials in this facility. [3] The pyrolysis plant was designed and built within 9 months in The Netherlands by BTG and Zeton. In January 2005 the plant was shipped to Malaysia and re-assembled. From April 2005 onwards the pyrolysis plant was extensively tested, modified and optimised. [4] By March 2008, the plant undergone an upgrade process to increase its nominal capacity to 130 tons of biomass input per day, a 30% increase in capacity, [5] The Ontario facility was commissioned in 2006 and was initially focused on the production of liquids for specialty chemicals and heating fuels. In 2014, Ensyn carried out improvements to convert it to a dedicated fuels plant. [6] The facility was opened in Hengelo (Netherlands) in May 2015 as part of the activities of the EMPYRO Project that was born to design, build and operate a 25 MW fast pyrolysis plant for simultaneous production of electricity, process steam, bio-oil and organic acids from woody biomass. Empyro, reference plant for BTG-BTL pyrolysis technology, became part of Twence on 1 January 2019. [7] According to the last news, the start-up of the plant was scheduled in Mid-2018. As of this writing, there is no evidence that the plant is running. BRB post: “Construction of the Cote Nord biocrude production facility starts in Quebec”, 17/7/2016. [8] In April 2019, BTG-BTL announced it had signed a contract with Green Fuel Nordic Oy for the construction of a fast pyrolysis bio-oil production plant. BRB post: “BTG-BTL to supply technology for Green Fuel Nordic Oy pyrolysis plant”, 16/4/2019. [9] In June 2018, Preem and Setra announced that they were investigating the possibility of building a facility for the production of 25,000 tons of pyrolysis oil. “Preem and Setra collaborate on renewable fuel”, 21/6/2018. [10] The facility was formerly owned by Fortum. It signed an agreement to sell it to Savon Voima Oyj in December 2019.

Profiles of main fast pyrolysis technology providers

BTG-BTL / Technology: RCR (Rotating Cone Reactor)          

1. Feedstocks

Lignocellulosic feedstocks.

Tests have been carried out with the BTG-BTL technology with over 45 different kinds of feedstock (wood, rice husk, bagasse, sludge, tobacco, energy crops, palm-oil residues, straw, olive stone residues, chicken manure…).

2. Process description

The RCR design results in a remarkably small reactor, reduced system complexity and minimum downstream equipment size.

- Dried biomass particles are fed into the pyrolysis reactor together with an excess flow of sand, which acts as a circulating heat carrier material.

- The biomass and sand are mixed within the pyrolysis reactor and converted into pyrolysis oil vapors, gas and char.

- The produced vapours and gasses pass through several cyclones before entering the condenser, in which the vapours are quenched by re-circulated oil.

- The sand and char are transported to a fluidized bed combustor, where air is added to combust the char. The non-condensable pyrolysis gasses enter the combustor from the condensor and are also combusted.

- The reheated sand is then transported back to the reactor via a sand cooler to ensure a constant reactor sand feeding temperature.

- Excess heat from the sand cooler and from the hot combustor flue gasses is captured as high-pressure steam.

3. Products

Pyrolysis oil, process steam and electricity. BTG-BTL’s standard design includes recovery of excess heat in the form of steam which can be used for industrial or local heating applications and electricity production.

4. History

BTG has its roots in the Chemical Engineering faculty at the University of Twente. In the late 1970's a first project was completed in Zaria (Nigeria) after which work was continued at the reaction engineering group of the University of Twente on biomass gasification. In the 1980's this work was continued and extended to biomass conversion technologies, primarily those of relevance to developing countries.

The fast pyrolysis developments started at the beginning of the nineties with a new reactor concept in which no inert gases were required to enable rapid mixing of biomass and hot bed material. Over the years, BTG further improved and optimised the concept. Its modified rotating cone technology has resulted in several patents.

In 1998, BTG finalised the pilot plant on laboratory scale (80-250 kg/h). A smaller version of 1-5 kg/h dry biomass input was developed several years later (in 2004) to be able to perform smaller tests with more challenging feedstocks.

In 2005, BTG Biomass Technology Group (The Netherlands) started the demonstration of the technology on Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) in Malaysia on a scale of 2 tons/h. This first production unit was built for and operated by a client in Malaysia.

In 2007, BTG established BTG BioLiquids B.V. (trade name BTG-BTL) in response to the large number of requests they were getting from the market concerning their pyrolysis technology. BTG-BTL is dedicated to the worldwide commercial implementation of the fast pyrolysis technology developed by BTG.

In May 2015, Empyro (5 tons/h plant) was opened in Hengelo (Netherlands). It has been sold to Twence at the end of 2018. The plant has demonstrated that the technology is successful. However, it is not BTG-BTL’s aim to produce oil itself. The company intends to roll-out this technology on a global scale and thus contribute to the energy transition.

In 2016, BTG-BTL signed an exclusive cooperation agreement with TechnipFMC to provide its customers with turnkey EPC services for its modular pyrolysis plants. TechnipFMC and BTG-BTL also collaborate in the development of commercial uses for fast pyrolysis oil as renewable fuel and petrochemical feedstock.

In early 2019, based on the success of Empyro, BTG-BTL announced it had signed a contract for delivery of a 5 tons/h pyrolysis plant in Finland.

Figure 2. The Empyro plant in Hengelo converts biomass into bio-oil, power and steam on a 24/7 basis

5. References

- https://www.btg-btl.com/en.

- BRB post: “Agreement between Technip and BTG BioLiquids to design and build fast pyrolysis plants”, 26/8/2016.

- BRB post: “EMPYRO Project – New commercial scale fast pyrolysis plant”, 19/6/2015.

- BRB post: “BTG-BTL sells its pyrolysis plant Empyro to Twence”, 14/12/2018.

Ensyn / Technology: RTP (Rapid Thermal Processing)

1. Feedstocks

- Hardwoods and softwoods, with or without bark.

- Mill and forest residues.

- Agricultural residues.

2. Process description

The Ensyn RTP process is based on the rapid thorough contact of hot flowing sand with biomass, which quickly fragments the solid feedstock into vapors, gases and char. The vapors are rapidly quenched and recovered as a free-flowing light biocrude, while the gases and char flow together to a second vessel where the sand is reheated and recirculated back to the conversion unit. Heat is recovered from the gas and char and is used in various RTP process applications.

The technology is similar to Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC), a common and mature process used in most refineries. FCC systems circulate catalyst in a closed loop between two key vessels, a conversion unit and a catalyst regenerator, while transforming petroleum into transportation fuels and petrochemicals. Ensyn uses a similar mechanical process, but circulates an inert sand heat carrier, instead of catalyst, to convert wood residues to high yields of a free-flowing liquid biocrude.

Figure 3. Simplified process diagram of the RTP process  

3. Products

- Liquid biocrude yields are typically 70 to 75 wt% from dried wood residues. The biocrude is used directly as a renewable fuel oil (RFO) for heating and cooling purposes, as a refinery feedstock to produce renewable ‘drop-in’ gasoline and diesel, and as a chemical feedstock to produce food flavorings and fragrances.

- Byproduct combustible gas and char make up the balance and are used as an energy source to run the plant and dry the biomass feed material.

4. History

- 1984: Ensyn is established by Dr Robert Graham and Barry Freel.

The concept was developed at the University of Western Ontario.

Focus on fast thermal cracking of carbon-based feedstocks including biomass.

- 1985-1989: Proof of concept and commercialization.

Strategic alliance established in mid-1980s with Red Arrow Products Company, a Wisconsin-based food products company.

First commercial RTP facility delivered to Red Arrow in 1989.

Since 1989, multiple RTP facilities have been delivered to Red Arrow for the production of food ingredients, with byproduct liquids used for industrial heating.

- 1990-2000: scale-up of biomass RTP and development of petroleum application.

RTP facilities scaled up to 30+ dry tons/day (60+ green tons/day) in the early 1990s.

RTP technology adapted for heavy oil upgrading in 1998 (20 barrel/day petroleum pilot facility).

- 2000-2005: Development and sale of petroleum application.

1,000 barrel/day heavy oil RTP unit designed and engineered by Ensyn and built in the Belridge oil field in California in 2004

Rights to the RTP technology for conversion of non-renewable feedstocks (including heavy oil upgrading) sold in 2005 at a US$100 million enterprise value.

- 2005: Focus on renewable fuels.

Following the sale of the non-renewable business, Ensyn returned its focus to the renewable fuels business. First step was design and construction of Ensyn's 100%-owned, 70 dry tons/day (140 green tons/day) RTP facility in Renfrew (commissioned 2007).

​- 2008: Landmark alliance with Honeywell UOP.

In 2008, Ensyn and Honeywell UOP joined forces through the creation of Envergent Technologies LLC. Envergent provides licensing, engineering services and RTP equipment supply to projects developed by Ensyn and its partners, with performance guarantees. Ensyn’s alliance with Honeywell UOP was expanded in early 2014 to include cooperation between Honeywell UOP and Ensyn in developing and commercializing Refinery Co-processing.

- 2012: Ensyn establishes joint venture with Fibria Celulose, S.A., Brazil.

Ensyn and Fibria establish an equally-owned joint venture for the development of facilities to produce biocrude in Brazil. The goal of the joint venture is to combine the strengths of each party to create a major biocrude production base in Brazil.

- 2013-2015: Confirmation of results of Refinery Co-processing.

Successful demonstrations of Refinery Co-processing in numerous trials and demonstrations, including in operating commercial refineries.

Expanded alliance with Honeywell UOP to include commercialization of Refinery Co-processing.

- 2016: Initiation of the construction of the Cote Nord Project.

Figure 4. Construction of the Cote Nord Project

5. References

- http://www.ensyn.com.