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

  • March 21, 2017
    Indra leads European big data project
    Technology firm Indra is leading the R&D&i Transforming Transport project, which aims to demonstrate how the use of data may improve management and services rendered to clients in the logistics and transport sector, through 13 large-scale pilots in different countries and transport modes. Funded by the European Commission under Horizon 2020 program, the project includes 47 partners from Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, United Kingdom and Spain, including some of
    Read More
  • May 25, 2012
    Nissan to produce 100% electric van in Barcelona
    Nissan has announced that a 100 per cent electric compact van, the e-NV200, will go into production at its Barcelona plant in Spain in the 2013 Financial Year. The new model will be based on the existing award-winning NV200 currently produced at the plant and will be an important and innovative addition to Nissan's global range of light commercial vehicles (LCV's).
    Read More
  • July 1, 2015
    Cooperative driving will become common by 2020, say researchers
    The international Celtic Plus Co-operative Mobility Services of the Future (CoMoSeF) project which, involved the development of data exchange between vehicles and infrastructure, has just presented its findings. The resulting communication system provides drivers with real time information on road weather, road conditions and incidents. During the project a cooperative roadside weather monitoring station run by the Finnish Meteorological Institute relays the latest reports – and weather updates covering
    Read More
  • May 18, 2012
    EVs stir interest but face obstacles – IBM study
    Many automobile industry executives believe that sales of traditional vehicles will peak before 2020 and are looking to electric-only vehicles (EVs) as one of the next hot products, but they will first have to address stringent consumer requirements about EV performance, recharging, and convenience, according to a new IBM survey of consumer attitudes and a recent study of auto industry executives.
    Read More

Highlighted Content