A. The technical settings.
During this prior study, some upgrades, beyond the state of the art were identified.
(1) Exhaust gas recuperation:
This economical and environmental added value is obvious. The exhausts gases are no more released in the air but well recuperated.
The cost of the primary fuel (diesel) is decreased thanks to the thermal value of the exhausts gases recuperated for drying the biomass. It was calculated that the heat exchangers installed on the CargoMill will recuperate up to 80% of the exhausts gazes energy (former thermal losses).
Moreover, the thermal value of the biomass is improved (for bioenergy purpose) equivalent to 10€ per ton by 5% increment of the moisture decrease (assuming a reference price of 80€/T of biomass).
Nevertheless, additional heat source were identified with a carbonization kiln.
(2) Additional thermal heating capacity.
As the moisture content of the biomass must be reduced prior to the densification, the CargoMill will use its own waste energy from the exhaust gazes. This heating media equivalent to an estimate of 600kW th will not be enough in several cases.
Therefore, we have decided to operate an additional carbonization kiln with a capacity of 16Tons per day that will deliver one additional MW thermal (1°) and also a by products, the charcoal. The charcoal can be used as organic fertilizer (useful in agricultural areas) but also as additive to improve the calorific value of the collected biomass. More GJ/T or MWH/T mean also less logistic costs as more energy per ton is transported and a better profitability.
(3) Hydrolysis of biomass.
Finally, the last breakthrough finding is the possibility to hydrolyze biomass in situ.
This major step of development will be launched at a later stage (2018).
4 steps for converting biomass into valuable biobased building blocks are necessary: the supply chain, the pretreatement and hydrolizis then the fermentation and the distillation
Today, the last three steps are performed at the plant level.
Among these steps, the pretreatment is not the core business of most of industrialists that are more specialized in fermentation and/or distillation.
R&D for the pretreatment have made the last years significant progress especially by soaking the biomass with ionic liquids. This step is less energy intensive and does not require steam explosion (less CAPEX intensive).
Three universities were contacted for continuing this phase 2 of the development.
The concept to mobilize the biomass and to hydrolyze it “in situ” is gaining more interest near one key industrialist, supplying enzyme.
B. Socio economical impacts:
1) From the climatic point of view and the reduction of the GHG, the mobilization of untapped biogenic raw material will trigger more biobased projects either for bioenergy or for the biobased economy.
A prerequisite condition is to keep an eye on the entire sustainability of the supply chain. In figures, a ton of biomass is savings 1,2T of fossil based CO2 delivered by crude oil and 1,5T of CO2 from coal. The capacity of the CargoMill is saving up to 60 to 70.000T of renewable CO2.
2) The energy and mass balance of the biomass is imporved: the calorific value is increased twofold from 2MWh/T to 4,5-5MWh/t while the mass balance of the biomass is “compacted” from 200kgs/m3 to 800kgs/m3 resulting in less transport (and related GHG) and a higher logistics efficiency. Any improvement per MWh is reducing the footprint by 2.000m2 of forest surface equivalent.
3) For the environmental and social aspects, a dedicated equipment wit embedded probes and sensors will technically contribute to monitor the environmental aspects: soil’s fertility, biodiversity, sourcing from unprotected areas. The sourcing of biomass is relying on finite resources. A price must be paid to the biomass owners to incentivize his monitoring and for keeping the environmental and biodiversity issues under a tight control.
Sacrifices vs. benefits for the people and end users (industries).
