THE SHELL HYDROTHERMAL UPGRADING PROCESS ( HTU ) FOR THE LIQUEFACTION OF BIOMASS J.E. Naber and F. Goudriaan
(BIOFUEL BV)
BIOFUEL B.V.
1990 2040
FOSSIL FUELS, „ 255 480
LAND AREA @ 15 TON(DB)/HA.YR
BIOMASS RESIDUES 70 EJ/YR
1994 - 1997 Technical-Economic evaluation of HTU technology
Nov 1997 - July 2000:
PROCESS DEVELOPMENT PROJECT EET-1
reaction time 5 - 20 minutes
liquid water present
Also wet feedstocks, no drying required
Chemistry: Oxygen removed as Carbon Dioxide
Products 45 Biocrude (%w on feedstock, dry basis)
25 Gas (> 90% CO2)
Thermal efficiency: 70 - 90 %
LHV 30 -35 MJ/kg
Applications
Biocrude as such: (co)combustion in coal- and oil- fired power stations
After upgrading (hydrogenation): premium diesel fuel; kerosene
luboil base stock
chemicals feedstock (cracker)
(replacement of fossil fuels)
(cofiring with coal)
Biomass
(LHV of feed) + (LHV from external fuel)
For present process design:
th = 55.62 * 100% = 74.9 %
(
(
Principle of catalytic Hydrodeoxygenation has been
demonstrated
Diesel fraction has excellent ignition properties
Potential applications:
Transport fuel
Feedstock for chemicals (via ethylene cracker)
Etc. etc.
BIOFUEL B.V.
BIOFUEL B.V.
COST OF BIOCRUDE AND COST OF AVOIDING ONE TON OF CO2 ; EFFECT OF FEEDSTOCK PRICE
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
-1
0
1
2
3
Future plant
First Plant
Total Product Cost, $/GJ
Future plant
rest products
energy farming
BIOFUEL B.V.
CRITICAL ITEMS
Heating - up
Oil/water separation
(
Continuous pilot plant
commissioning 1 July 1999
BIOFUEL B.V.
validated in continuous pilot plant
Time period: 1 November 1997 - 31 July 2000
Cost and funding:
Subsidy 3 M $
Stork E&C (Now Jacobs) 1
Shell Nederland 1
4. Process Modeling - TNO (Tech Univ Delft)
5. Feedstock characterisation - BTG
7. Pilot plant design & contruction - TNO (Contractor)
8. Pilot plant operation - TNO
9. Product research - BTG
11. Commercial design & cost - Jacobs Engineering Nederland
12. Operational project support - Biofuel
13. Business development - Biofuel
14. Chemical analyses - TNO
PROJECT ACTIVITIES
BIOFUEL B.V.
Process scheme, Mass & Heat Balances: ASPEN PLUS flowsheeter
All disciplines involved, incl. layout
Case study:
Intake Capacity: 130,000 tonnes/year (dry basis)
Focus on heat integration, thermal efficiency
(
- most initial problems solved
- 200 kg biocrude produced
Waste water treatment routes defined
Product: various applications explored
Fundamental research to start: NWO – Japan project.
BIOFUEL B.V.
EET-2 PROJECT:
Product application development
BIOFUEL B.V.
Study by Jacobs Engineering Nederland, 2000
Location: Large Waste Processing Company, The Netherlands
Feedstock: Organic Wet Fraction (ONF) of domestic waste
Capacity: 81,300 tonnes of ONF per year
62,500 tonnes of washed ONF+ per year
(= 25,000 tonnes per year dry basis)
Production: 14,470 t/yr Biocrude (incl ash) = 10,630 t/yr DAF
Combustion in power plant gives 5.5 MWe
(
BASIS for ECONOMICS
HTU plant 37
Availability: year 1: 40 % (of 8000 h/yr)
year 2: 60 %
year 3: 80 %
years 4-15: 100 %
Operation: Worst case
Total capital required 50 M Nfl
CO2 reduction plan: minus 7.5 M Nfl
EWAB: minus 3.0
Effect of VAMIL minus 13.8 M Nfl
Effect of EIA minus 5.5 M Nfl
Net Investment 20.2 M Nfl
(
NPV, M Nfl
License fee (p.m.)
Operating cost washing plant (24.8)
Operating cost HTU plant (30.2)
Biocrude sales 10.4 75% of equiv. coal price
Fee for ONF 80.7 (= 100 Nfl/ton ONF)
Total project NPV 14.5 NPV=0 if ONF fee= 77 Nfl/ton
Effect of REB buy-back 32.2
NPV incl REB 46.7 NPV=0 if ONF fee= 39 Nfl/ton
NPV = Net present value of project over 15 years, discounted
cash flow with 7% interest rate
(
Chemical and physical characteristics of biomass feedstocks in relation to hydrothermal conversion
(Wageningen Agricultural University)
(Delft University of Technology)
(Twente University)
Upgrading of biomass residues and sewage sludge
For sewage sludge: continuous bench scale unit, 15 kg/h, ca. 1988
process development unit, 5 tons/day
Cooperation with:
Ebara corp.
BIOFUEL B.V.
Netherlands: 4 out of 20 projects are on HTU fundamentals
Japan: Involvement of NIRE
0
Organic household waste 1.1 ,,
(
(Source: Eurec agency, 1996)
Short-term niches for HTU:
- Organic household waste 26 ktons/a (db) per
(from centralized waste separation) 250,000 inhabitants
- Residues from sugar and beer production.
(
fuels and electricity”, 1993)
(own tentative estimate)
- Coir dust