Skip to main content

VTT participates in biofuel production technology project

The VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is participating in the EU-funded project COMSYN, which aims to develop a production concept for competitive bio-based fuels by means of a compact gasification and synthesis process. The target reduction of the biofuel production cost is up to 35 per cent compared to alternative routes, which translates to less than 0.80 €/l production cost for diesel.
September 15, 2017 Read time: 2 mins

The VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is participating in the EU-funded project COMSYN, which aims to develop a production concept for competitive bio-based fuels by means of a compact gasification and synthesis process. The target reduction of the biofuel production cost is up to 35 per cent compared to alternative routes, which translates to less than 0.80 €/l production cost for diesel.

The production concept is based on the distributed primary conversion of various kind of biomass residues to intermediate liquid products at small-to-medium scale (10-50 kt/a Fischer-Tropsch products, 30–150 MW biomass) units located close to biomass resources. The Fischer-Tropsch products will be upgraded to fuels in existing central oil refineries, also bringing the benefits of economy of scale for the overall process.

The smaller scale of primary conversion lowers the risks of the investment, which has been the main bottleneck for large-scale biofuel plants. Integration of the primary conversion to local heat and power production is estimated to result in 80 per cent energy efficiency in biomass utilisation.

The COMSYN project validates the process concept from biomass gasification to final biofuel product. The gasification of biomass and the gas cleaning process are developed and piloted by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd together with GKN Sinter Metals Filters.

The synthesis process utilises a modern intensified Fischer-Tropsch reactor by INERATEC GmbH and one of the key targets of the project is to further develop the technology for even higher syngas conversion. Refining of Fischer-Tropsch products to high quality drop-in liquid transport fuels is done at UniCRE, the Unipetrol Centre for Research and Education.

The process design, techno-economic and environmental assessments as well as market and business case studies are carried out by Amec Foster Wheeler Italiana, DLR German Aerospace Center and ÅF-Consult.

Related Content

  • May 18, 2012
    LA retires last diesel bus
    Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority (Metro) has retired the last diesel bus in its fleet, becoming the world's first major transit agency to operate only clean fuel buses - nearly 100 per cent of which operate on compressed natural gas (CNG). According to Metro, compared with diesel buses, its CNG fleet reduces cancer-causing particulate matter by more than 80 per cent. And, because of the switch from diesel to CNG, Metro avoids emitting nearly 300,000 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per da
  • July 11, 2018
    Cost benefit: Toronto retimings tame traffic trauma
    Canada’s largest city reckons that it is saving its taxpayers’ money simply by altering the way traffic lights work. David Crawford reviews Toronto’s ambitious plans to ease congestion. Toronto, Canada’s largest metropolis (and the fourth largest in North America), has saved its residents CAN$53 (US$42.4) for every CAN$1 (US$0.80) spent over a 2012-2016 traffic signal retiming programme, according to figures released by its Transportation Services Division. The programme covered 1,275 signals (the city’s to
  • December 15, 2015
    Mobility as a Service gaining traction in US and Europe
    As Mobility as a Service starts to move into the mainstream of transport planning, David Crawford compares European and North American initiatives. Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is a concept fast gaining traction on both sides of the Atlantic as a way of giving travellers digital multimodal one-stop shops and journey planning tools as an alternative to private car use. Planned delivery methods include subscription-based travel packages in Europe, and 'mobility aggregator' apps, including employee commute ben
  • December 16, 2016
    Study reveals unexpected effects of replacing fuel tax
    Eric O’Rear, Wallace Tyner and Kemal Sarica examine the far-reaching implications of replacing fuel taxes with a mileage tax. Lawmakers at both the federal and state level are frustrated over declining fuel tax revenues as they struggle to fund projects for constructing and maintaining state-wide infrastructure.