Cleaning biomass-derived gas for biofuels
As part of the EU-funded 'Advanced cleaning devices for production of green syngas' (GREENSYNGAS) project, researchers made substantial progress towards this goal. For example, one of the project partners managed to develop novel filtering systems to remove particles from biomass-derived synthesis gas (syngas). The idea was to create syngas pure enough for conversion into biofuels for the transport sector and electricity generation, among other uses. Three techniques were developed. The first used physical removal of tars and another utilised catalytic reforming of the tar contaminants. A third system employed oxidative thermal treatment. These promising prototypes fulfilled the aim of the project: to develop and demonstrate advanced syngas cleaning technologies using both chemical and physical methods. The research drew on the expertise of those in the fields of gasification, cleaning technologies, catalysts, and product development and commercialisation. Project efforts resulted in a number of journal publications and results have been presented at 20 international conferences. Further research will determine if this system and others investigated in the laboratory can be up-scaled for real-world applications. Biomass conversion processes offer many environmental and economic benefits. GREENSYNGAS has added a very necessary building block to this area of research and it is hoped that further studies could even result in commercialisation.
