Synthetic biofuels – do they have a future?

Institute of Chemical Engineering

Working Group Future Energy Technology

Prof. Hermann Hofbauer

Synthetic biofuels –

do they have a future?

Reinhard Rauch


Working Group Synthetic Biofuels

2

The basic concept – “Green Chemistry”

BiomassGasification

Producer Gas (gas engine, gas turbine,

fuel cell)

Synthetic NaturalGas (SNG)

FT-Fuels(FT-Diesel)

Methanol / DME

Hydrogen

Mixed alkohols

Biomass

Synthesis gasH2 + CO

Oxosynthesisfor aldehydes

Isosynthesis forIsobutane

Ammonia

others



Synthetic Biofuels (e.g. FT- Route)

GasificationFT-

SynthesisCleaning/

Conditioning

FT- wax

HPFT-

Fuels

Pure Syngas

H2/CO= 2

Raw Syngas

H2/CO=1,5

Hydro-

(Co)-Processing

Wood

Chips

Steam Hydrogen

(pure/ recycled)

Cellulose

Hemicellulose

Lignini/n- paraffins

(hydrocarbons)

FT- fuels

Fossil Products

(e.g. LGO, HGO, VGO)

Purge Gas

Wax



There were some drawbacks during 2013 for gasification processes in Austria

� CHP Villach went insolvent in spring 2013

� CHP Güssing went insolvent in July 2013 (is started actual again and future operation is guaranteed)



Fight for biomass resource has started

� Pulp and paper industry makes lobbying against biomass CHPs

� Price for wood chips has increased by about 30% during the last 10 years



�Prize increase by 500% in the last 10 years

�If linear extrapolated for another 10 years crude oil will cost about 500U$/barrel



Costs of wood chips



CO2 emissions in the same range as electric Vehicles



BioFiTBIOMASSBIOMASS--TOTO--FISCHERFISCHER--TROPSCHTROPSCH

nCO + 2nH2 = nCH2 + nH2O

9



Commercial FICFB gasifiers

LocationUsage /

Product

Fuel / Product

MW, MWStart up Supplier Status

Güssing, AT Gas engine 8.0fuel / 2.0el 2002AE&E,

Repotec?

Oberwart, ATGas engine /

ORC / H2

8.5fuel / 2.8el 2008Ortner

AnlagenbauOperational

Villach, AT Gas engine 15fuel / 3.7el 2010Ortner

AnlagenbauOn hold

Senden/Ulm

DE

Gas engine /

ORC14fuel / 5el 2011 Repotec Commissioning

Burgeis, IT Gas engine 2fuel / 0.5el 2012 Repotec Commissioning

Göteborg,

SwedenBioSNG 32fuel/20 BioSNG 2013

Metso/

RepotecCommissioning

Vienna, OMV Hydrogen 50fuel/30 hydrogen ? Repotec cancelled



Biomass CHP Güssing

BioSNG PDU

Technikum

FT synthesis

Hydrogen

Mixed alcohols

Fuelling StationGasifier



FT lab scale plant

12

5-10kg/day of FT raw product

Slurry reactor, because of excellent heat transfer and easy scaling up

Gas treatment removes Sulphur to below 10ppb

Fully automatic

FT synthesis



Product Distribution and Hydrocarbons Content

13



Comparison of Produced FT Fuels FT- Diesel HPFT- Diesel CEC- Prüf . ACN: >72 t d = 2,5 s 68,5 td = 2,91 s >51,8 / CFPP/CP/FP: -12/ -9/ - °C -62/ -60 / -98°C -18/ -5 °C

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Carbon- number

fract

ion

[%w

t]

i- paraff/res. (FT)

n- paraff. (FT)

i- paraff/res. (HPFT)

n- paraff. (HPFT)

i- paraff. /res. CEC- Prüf DK

n- paraff. CEC- Prüf- DK

14



Results on Engine Tests with 20% Blends

VergleichsbasisB0 Diesel

15

100% basis is fossil diesel



Folie 16

SGC Energia Finished Successfully their 1 bpd Demo



Problem: Costs

� Complex technology, so high investment costs� Efficiency from input material to transportation fuel is

about 40-65%, so much worse than refinery (>90%), but much better than electricity from biomass (20-30%)

� So fuel costs have the highest influence on production costs

� Main problem are high investment costs and no security of supply of biomass (in Europe)

� From the production costs not much difference to other options of advanced biofuels, like fermentation



Annual costs [500 MW fuel, FT synthesis]



0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

Hamelinck 2004 500 MW Konzept 5 x 100 MWKonzept

Tijmensen, 2002 DENA-Studie,2006

Inve

stiti

onsv

olum

en,

Mio

EU

RInvestment costs [500 MW fuel, FT synthesis]

Dual fluidDual fluid



Investment costs [500 MW fuel, FT synthesis]

On top of hardware are:

building 2%

construction

work 10%

engineering 10%

reserve 15%



Projects on synthetic biofuels

� The Forest BtL Project, FI (480 MWfuel / FT products / 2016-17)

� Bioliq® Project, DE (2 MWfuel / Synthetic Gasoline / 2013)� Chemrec Projects, SE (BioDME project)� UPM Project (300MWfuel / FT products)� The Woodspirit Project, NL (200 000 tpa Biomethanol

torrefied biomass into entrained flow gasifier)� BioTfueL Project, FR (12 MWfuel / FT products)� Värmlandsmetanol, SE (111 MWfuel / Methanol / 2017)� …



■ Biomass CHP on basis of steam gasification are already on the market.

■ Demonstration of the production of

■ BioSNG (same quality as gas from Russia)■ Fischer-Tropsch-fuels (high quality diesel)

was done successful.

■ Green house gas reduction is about 80 %.

■ R&D projects on the synthesis of mixed alcohols and hydrogen are on the way.

Conclusion I

22



■ First plants for commercial production of advanced biofuels have some problems:■Choren, DE■Neste Oy / Stora Enso, FI

■ But some others will be realized:■ Ajos BTL, FI■UPM Stracel BTL, FR

■ First plant for the production of SNG is starting commissioning:■GobiGas, SE (1. Phase commissioning, 2. Phase: fund ed

by NER300)

High quality fuels from biomass are technically feasible!

Regarding production costs, there is still potential for optimization!

Conclusion II

23



More information at:� IEA Bioenergy Task 33 Thermal gasification of Biomass

(http://www.ieatask33.org)� IEA Bioenergy Task 39 Liquid Biofuels

(http://demoplants.bioenergy2020.eu/projects/mapindex)� US DOE Bioenergy Technologies Office

(http://www1.eere.energy.gov/biomass/integrated_biorefineries.html)

� European Biofuels technology platform (http://www.biofuelstp.eu) Contact:

Reinhard Rauch, Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Institute of Chemical EngineeringVienna University of TechnologyGetreidemarkt 9/1661060 Vienna / AUSTRIAhttp://www.vt.tuwien.ac.athttp://www.bioenergy2020.euEmail: [email protected]

Synthetic biofuels – do they have a future?

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