Dynamotive Breaks Ground for MegaCity Plant

Dynamotive broke ground on October 7^th for the MegaCity Recycling, 200 tonnes per day BioOil plant on a 22 acre site in Guelph, Ontario.  The plant is expected to be producing BioOil in Q1 2007 as it ramps up through its commissioning process.

Dynamotive President and CEO, Andrew Kingston, said that equipment deliveries to the site are expected early in November with all major components to be on site by year end. The plant will incorporate important technological advances we gained through operating the West Lorne plant.

Dynamotive's carbon/greenhouse gas neutral fast pyrolysis technology uses medium temperatures and oxygen-less conditions to turn dry waste biomass and energy crops into BioOil for power and heat generation. BioOil can be further converted into vehicle fuels and chemicals. The fast pyrolysis process takes less than two seconds to produce BioOil, char, and non-condensable gases. There is zero waste as the BioOil and char have significant commercial application and value and the non-condensable gases are recycled and produce approximately 75% of the energy required for the pyrolysis process. 

“The site has the capacity for up to four plants as well as administrative and engineering offices and, potentially, Dynamotive’s technical research and development function. We are currently considering the move of our two existing pilot and demonstration plants to the site.

“Investment by Dynamotive and its partners on site acquisition, first plant development and related infrastructure is expected to reach $18,500,000. Dynamotive intends, through leasing arrangements to be concluded, to recover its investment over a five year period and maintain an equity position in Evolution Biofuels.”

The Guelph plant is being developed with MegaCity Recycling Inc. It will operate under the name Evolution Biofuels Inc. Dynamotive will have a minority ownership position in Evolution Biofuels and will be leasing the pyrolysis unit to the Company. MegaCity takes waste construction and demolition wood from the private sector and processes it for secondary markets. For example, damaged wooden pallets are ground to provide a feedstock for particle or chipboard manufacture.

Dynamotive also announced that it has completed the development and installation of its product research laboratory in Waterloo, Ontario. The laboratory will focus on developing value-added products from BioOil with a view to enhancing BioOil plant operations returns.

The Waterloo Research Laboratory, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dynamotive, will be headed by Dr. Desmond Radlein and will be supported by Dr. Jueh Wang and staff. Dynamotive has allocated $1,500,000 for research through 2007.

PROCESS DESCRIPTION

Prepared feedstock (<10% moisture and 1-2 mm particle size) is fed into a bubbling fluid-bed reactor, which is heated to 450–500 °C in the absence of oxygen. This is lower than conventional pyrolysis systems and, therefore, has the benefit of higher overall energy conversion efficiency. The feedstock flashes and vaporizes like throwing droplets of water into a hot frying pan. The resulting gases pass into a cyclone where solid particles, char, are extracted. The gases enter a quench tower where they are quickly cooled using BioOil already made in the process

The BioOil condenses and falls into the product tank, while non-condensable gases are returned to the reactor to maintain process heating. The entire reaction from injection to quenching takes only two seconds.

100% of the feedstock is utilized in the process to produce BioOil and char. As the non-condensable gases are used as energy to run the process, nothing is wasted and no waste is produced. The non-condensed gases are re-circulated to fuel approximately 75% of the energy needed by the pyrolysis process.

Three products are produced: BioOil (60-75% by weight), char (15-25% wt.) and non-condensable gases (10-20% wt.). Yields vary depending on the feedstock composition. BioOil and char are commercial products and non-condensable gases are recycled and supply a major part of the energy required by the process. No waste is produced in the Dynamotive process.

BioOil Properties compared with Diesel Oil

Parameter	Units	BioOil – wood based	Diesel Oil
High Heating Value	MJ/kg	16-19	42
Flash Point	oC	48-55	35-60
Viscosity	cSt	8 (60 oC)	6
Moisture	Wt%	20-25	0
Density (25oC)	Kg/liter	1.2	0.84
Surface Tension	mN/m	35-39	29
Acidity	pH	2-3	5
Solids (char)	wt %	0.01-0.2	-
Ash	wt %	<0.02	0.01

More information about Dynamotive can be found here.

Comments

[amazingdrx]

Maybe the poet had something there with pyrolysis. This oxygen free system looks great.

The heat for pyrolysis could be provided from solar furnace/wind electric and the char used in a solid oxide fuel cell turbine system. This would provide for offpeak and high solar/wind output time period fuel processing, storing renewable energy in the form of biodiesel and char.

Then when grid backup is needed in low wind/solar power periods and high peak use the char is fed through the fuel cell/turbine. All emissions can go back into a solar collector/algae system to produce more algae biomass for pyrolysis refining.

Biodiesel and electrical grid backup, and a biogas digestor could produce backup fuel from waste that would also run fine in the fuel cell/turbine.

Coal would be obsolete in no time at all given mass production of these systems. Give american workers a chance at this taxpayers. they can win this peaceful battle over energy and end oil wars forever.

[Harvey D.]

This seems to be an efficient way to convert biomass + wastes into other forms of energy, including bio-oil.

What is the total energy efficiency of this type of transformation?

Can the process be fully operated on the energy produced? If so, how much energy is left?

Can bio-oil low heating energy (40%) be increased to a level similar to fossil diesel fuel with ethanol or buthanol? If so, how much would it take?.

What would be the impact on CO2 emmisions from engines using bio-oil versus fossil diesel fuel considering that about 2.5 times more bio-oil has to be used?

[Engineer-Poet]

If you are looking for better info on bio-oil, read this paper.

The energy value of bio-oil is roughly the same as that of dry biomass, so as a first guess the energy efficiency would be around 70%; the gas and perhaps some or all of the char would have to be burned to power the process.  It's largely composed of small organic molecules like acids (look at the pH!) and it's not stable over time.

Perhaps the chemists know ways to extract lots of valuable substances from such a brew, but I'm not a chemist.  What I do understand is that bio-oil is not miscible with petroleum diesel or fuel oil, would probably corrode fuel-system components and isn't easily substituted for either one.  Upgrading would require extracting the water and converting small molecules to straight hydrocarbons; maybe thermochemical conversion can do it, but it would be another step.

I think this sort of scheme is a good first step, but the major product (bio-oil) isn't very good for anything except maybe chemical synthesis.  Aside from turning waste into sterile and useful products, its biggest virtue is that it's easy to transport (though I've seen no word on how it smells).  My favorite scheme is still pyrolysis to charcoal and gas (no liquids), with the gas going to uses like SOFC's and the charcoal being used as either fuel for DCFC's (after de-ashing) or a carbon-sequestering soil amendment.  The charcoal scheme might still use some bio-oil, though; if powdered charcoal was wetted slightly and squeezed through a heated die, the pyrolysis of the bio-oil would help sinter the charcoal into pellets for easier handling.

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The energy value of bio-oil is roughly the same as that of dry biomass, so as a first guess the energy efficiency would be around 70%; the gas and perhaps some or all of the char would have to be burned to power the process. It's largely composed of small organic molecules like acids (look at the pH!) and it's not stable over time.