Today in Biofuels Digest discussion groups: “Pyrolysis makes very poor liquid fuels.”

At LinkedIn:

Ramin Abhari, P.E. Senior Process Engineer at Syntroleum Corporation: “Pyrolysis makes very poor liquid fuels. These are generally characterized by nasty phenolics, carbonyls, and stable water emulsions (some of the byproducts make excellent emulsifiers!). So in some sense, the problem is moved downstream (where these poor quality pyrolysis fuels have to be upgraded in high pressure hydroprocessing units equipped with appropriate metallurgy). Another disadvantage is that as feedstock changes (e.g. from wood chips to black liquor), so does the properties of the pyrolysis fuel.

Sam Thiessen, CEO of Ag BioPower : “The key here is “high pressure”…getting solid fuel in a pressure vessel is tricky, plus you have added opportunity for problems like corrosion and metal fatigue under high pressure, especially with materials that can transform in acids and alkalines. High pressures complicate gasification. Our system operates under low pressure – actually a vacuum (negative pressure). We use an open-hearth system which is probably the least likely to experience the problems he’s noted. Such problems wouldn’t be much different that those experienced in a wood stove. The problem with waste (ash) is not difficult for us, but it probably is more so in a high-pressure system.”

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