UK’s Carbon Trust pledges $10 million for pyrolysis research; process creates synthetic crude from biomass

In England, The Carbon Trust has pledged $10 million to fund pyrolysis projects. Pyrolysis is the chemical decomposition of organic materials by heating in the absence of oxygen or other reagents

Robert Trezona, head of research and development at the Carbon Trust, said that “We’d like to see the oil majors get involved in the research project. We’ve had informal talks with some oil companies who said they would bite the hand off of the company that can offer them a viable means of generating commercial pyrolysis oil.”

Companies such as Sustainable Power and US Sustainable Energy have been successfully testing synthetic crude oil made from the pyrolysis-related “Rivera process”. US Sustainable Enmergy has been producing up to 1,000 gallons per day of soybean-based bio-crude production at its Baytown, TX facility, on an initial production line with a 3 Mgy capacity. The fuels are certified at an on-site facility by Amspec.

Haytian Tractor & Equipment has signed an agreement with Sustainable Power Corporation to install 20 bio crude reactors and supply power and fuel in Les Cayes and Petit-Goave.

There have been recent reports that US Sustainable Energy may be planning expansion of the Baytown Energy Complex in Texas, and that a Guatemala expansion is in the works.

In Australia, CSIRO and Monash University recently announced a new process for producing what it termed a “concentrated biocrude”. Researchers reported that their Furafuel biocrude processes converts forest thinnings, crop residues and waste paper from landfills, and produces a more stable form of biocrude.