Europe's first unit to convert woody biomass to pyrolysis oil

December 2, 2009 by timbercommunity

The Italian company Industria e Innovazione will pursue Europe's first RTP(R) pyrolysis unit to convert woody biomass to pyrolysis oil for use in power generation. Pyrolysis oil is a synthetic fuel under investigation as substitute for petroleum.

Industria e Innovazione and Envergent have signed an agreement according to a pressrelease November 3rd 2009 to pursue development of an RTP facility to convert a mix of pine forest residues and clean demolition wood into pyrolysis oil, a liquid biofuel. The facility will be designed to process around 150 bone-dry metric tons per day of biomass to pyrolysis oil for the generation of renewable electricity.
RTP process (rapid thermal processing) is based on the rapid heating biomass such as wood chips, under normal pressure to produce large quantities of liquid pyrolysis. The oil can then be burned to generate heat or electricity. Pyrolysis can also be transformed into vehicle fuel.

The demo factory in Italy is built to process about 150 tonnes of biomass into pyrolysis oil for power generation. Enver Gent Technologies will provide technology to the factory, which will be operational in 2012. At that time Enver Gent Technologies' technology for processing of pyrolysis oil to diesel and aircraft fuel will be ready for licensing.

In Sweden, Sveaskog plans for a plant for production of pyrolysis oil from wood to Lövholmen outside Piteå "according to the  Nordisk Pappers tidning"in its latest issue.