2023-10-03 19:45:41
Scientists are investigating a novel process to obtain fuels and other sustainable products from renewable energy and biomass from waste. The research is carried out within the framework of the Horizon Europe Pysolo project, in which nine European partners from four countries will collaborate for four years.
The Pysolo project seeks to offer a solution, both for the decarbonization of the industrial and transportation sector, and for the elimination of fossil raw materials in the chemical industry. The proposal consists of combining concentrated solar energy (CSP) or renewable energy sources (solar/wind) to provide the energy necessary to carry out a thermochemical process of high interest, such as the pyrolysis of biomass from forest residues. Pyrolysis consists of carrying out the chemical decomposition of organic matter at moderate temperatures between 400ºC and 600ºC in the absence of oxygen and allows waste to be transformed into products with high added value such as biofuels or sustainable fertilizers.
The project is launched within a context in which the European Union faces the challenge of having an economy with net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This objective will not be possible if decarbonization is not carried out. of the chemical industry, considered responsible for a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions.
The director of the ICB and one of the researchers in charge of the project, Tomás García, affirms that the European chemical industry urgently needs to decarbonize: “It is currently betting on electrification, but it is not enough to comply with the Paris Agreements. The future happens because not only energy, but also raw materials for industrial processes, come from renewable sources such as recycling, CO2 capture or biomass.”
Researchers from the Carbochemistry Institute of the CSIC in the pyrolysis pilot plant. (Photo: ICB / CSIC)
Project technology
Concentrated solar energy is a technology that allows sunlight to be captured using movable mirrors, which direct and concentrate it on a solar receiver. In the particular case of the receivers to be developed at Pysolo, concentrated sunlight is used to heat solid particles to high temperatures whose energy can be used directly to carry out subsequent processes, produce electricity or store it for later use.
Alternatively, to provide greater flexibility to the process, it is also proposed to directly use renewable electrical energy (solar or wind) to heat the solid particles through the use of induction. Ramón Murillo, ICB researcher and member of the project, explains that with this technology “it is possible to provide the energy necessary for the pyrolysis process from renewable sources, producing not only raw materials for obtaining biofuels and chemical products, but also “a biochar (form of charcoal created by heating biomass in an oxygen-free atmosphere) that can be used as a renewable fertilizer and carbon sink, giving rise to negative CO2 emissions.”
In the case of forestry waste, there are various industrial processes in which, unlike what is proposed in this project, the energy of the process is obtained from the combustion of the biochar obtained in the pyrolysis process itself.
Flexibility to operate in autonomous mode
The greatest innovation of the project’s technology is that the pyrolysis process is made more flexible. It can be carried out with solar concentrator technology during sunny hours, but also with the use of electricity from renewable sources when sunshine is not enough. “If necessary, the pyrolysis gas can be converted into electricity and incorporated into the electrical grid,” García clarifies. “On the other hand, when excess cheap energy is available on the grid, for example wind, it can be converted into thermal energy in a highly efficient way using an induction process to maintain the pyrolysis process,” he adds.
Compared to conventional pyrolysis, in which char and pyrolysis gas are always burned to carry out the process, the PYSOLO project technology offers many more environmental and economic benefits. Thanks to the use of solar energy in the biomass pyrolysis process, high added value products such as bio-oil, biochar or pyrolysis gas can be maximized and, in turn, the associated CO2 emissions decrease due to the use of energy. renewable and fossil fuel-free raw materials. Thanks to the production of biochar, which acts as a carbon sink, the Pysolo project will develop a TRL4 scale process that produces net negative CO2 emissions.
The PYSOLO project is carried out by a consortium that combines, under the direction of the Politecnica di Milano, the experience of nine partners from four European countries: L’Institut National de l’Environnement Industriel et des Risques (INERIS), from France; Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt eV and the nova-Institut für politische und ökologische Innovation GmbH, both from Germany; Consorzio per la Ricerca e la Dimostrazione sulle Energie Rinnovabili, Politecnico di Torino and EU CORE Consulting SRL, from Italy; and, on the part of Spain, the Consorci Center de Ciencia I Tecnologia Forestal de Catalunya and the Institute of Carbochemistry of the CSIC in Zaragoza. (Source: CSIC)
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