Bio-carbonisation not de-carbonisation: Instead of referring to “decarbonising” the economy, would it be more appropriate to focus on a greener form of carbon instead? Carbon has helped to shape the world we live, in fuels and in chemicals, but today it is primarily from unsustainable fossil sources; coal, oil and gas, causing environmental impacts in both extraction and use. Most EU use is imported with assorted concerns relating to security of supply. A more secure and sustainable future needs to use carbon from nature: “biocarbon”; to create biodegradable bioplastics, other biochemicals and renewable energy. However, it is important that biocarbon is sustainable with functionalities, availability and costs comparable to the fossil carbon it displaces.
Whilst biocarbon is an abundant natural resource, it is not always available in the appropriate condition or location. The infrastructure associated with fossil carbon has been developed over many years, based around centralised refineries. The biorefineries of the future cannot ignore these existing infrastructures. For biocarbon to become established it must be able to be stabilised, stored, transported and used with cost and functional equivalence to fossil carbon. This needs to be achieved without expensive plant upgrades.
How big is the market? The global chemical industry is worth $3 trillion, with biochemicals approximately $100 billion, a relatively small but growing proportion. At present these biochemicals are mainly “1st generation”, competing with available food supplies, not a sustainable long-term option, this has led to research and investment into “2nd and 3rd generation sources. The bioenergy market is more developed and is expanding. EU wood pellet use for energy generation has increased from 2.5 million tonnes of oil equivalence (Mtoe) in 2008 and is projected by European Biomass Association to be up to 32 Mtoe (80 million metric tonnes approx.) by 2020. As bioenergy demand has grown, issues have arisen which will also impact on 2nd generation biochemicals.
• Existing EU forestry resources do not meet market demand, resulting in significant imports and emerging competition for supply from East Asia. Concerns expressed on imported supplies include; ecological stresses where grown, environmental impact of shipments around the globe and competition from other users.
• There are abundant EU biomass resources not currently being used to meet this supply gap, e.g. there are an estimated 100 Mtoe of agricultural residues alone. However, these residues are not in a form that can be readily collated and is usable by a large scale bioeconomy. There is a need to be able to cost-effectively collate and present this material in a form that can be used.
• SteamBio targets this need.
Swedish University of Agriculture life cycle experts have verified that SteamBio is environmentally sustainable with fewer impacts than existing torrefaction. External evaluation of the condensate biochemicals have confirmed that they are of high purity, not degraded by oxidative or other adverse reactions. The need is to now define process to separate and purify these chemicals
