• Raiko, Markku
• Hiltunen, Ilkka
• Sipilä, Kai
• Saarenpää, Terttu-Leea
• Tuomi, Sanna
• Sipilä, Esa
• Lindfors, Christian
• Wilén, Carl

Abstract

The research project "Biocoal - a new energy carrier forsaw mills, CHP plants and wood industry integrates" wascarried out within the Groove programme of Tekes duringthe years 2010-2013. The main objective of the projectwas to enhance the commercialization of integrated woodtorrefaction technology into current forest industryoperations. Several integration concepts were elaboratedtogether with the participating companies with a focus onsawmills and municipal and industrial CHP plants.The European forest industry constitutes a potentialplatform for the production of torrefied wood pellets andother bioenergy carriers. VTT, in collaboration withindustrial partners, has developed new bioenergy carriersolutions integrated into forest industry operations insawmills. A new torrefaction process was developed andmarket analysis was performed, including a road map fordemonstrations and market introduction. Some preliminarytest work was also carried out in order to assess thepossible advantages of the use of torrefied biomass infixed-bed and fluidised bed gasification applications,bio-oil production and as a potential raw material fornew advanced wood products.The primary prerequisite for the torrefied pellet marketis the energy plants' need for and interest in using themas fuel. The main users are assumed to be found in thepower production sector. Substituting coal by co-firingbiomass in large pulverised coal-fired power plants needssignificant green electricity incentives, however, or aconsiderably higher CO2 price in order to be feasible.From the raw-material point of view, the benefits fromintegrated torrefied pellet production are related toby-product utilization at sawmills or plywood mills, butalso to general wood procurement logistics at forestindustry plants. In the case where processing residuescan be utilized at site, cost savings can be achieved ifthe alternative option is to transport residues to anexternal facility. A market analysis of integratedbioenergy carrier production was undertaken at sawmillsin Finland. It was concluded, that the market conditionsfor torrefied pellets, and for solid biomass fuels ingeneral, is challenging due to the unexpected low pricesfor CO2 (about Euro 5/t CO2) certificates and for coal(about Euro 8/MWh). The results indicated that thereneeds to be a feed-in tariff or similar support mechanismfor torrefied pellets to guarantee a paying capabilityfor coal fired power plants above Euro 35/MWh so as tomake the investments viable.

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy
• wood
• gasification