Torrefaction Workshop will take place as a Side Event at the EU BC&E 2012 in Milan

The event will present and discuss the development of the torrefaction technology and its market implementation. It will provide an overview about the first steps towards an industrial scale fuel production and the connected on-going research activities to provide appropriate technologies, including suitable densification processes.

A first presentation will outline the state of the art of the world-wide torrefaction developments, focusing on the different torrefaction concepts, their suitability for the conversion of various raw materials, end-use requirements and the contribution of the SECTOR project (presentation by Anders Nordin, Umea Universitet). Experiences from the first commercially operated torrefaction plant in Europe will be integrated (Robin Post van der Burg, Topell). Another presentation will focus on the torrefaction development at ECN (Jaap Kiel, ECN).

The densification concepts and their adaptation for the new solid energy carrier play a key role here and will also be discussed (Wolfgang Stelte, DTI and Klaus Trattner, Andritz). Furthermore, the workshop will show the parallel research goals and trends outside the European Union emphasizing on the developments and experiences from North America (Shabhab Sokhansanj, ORNL Canada). Spanning these topics and also including further vital parts of the value chain, the EU-project SECTOR aims at advancing the market introduction of torrefied fuels.

The workshop is organised by DBFZ Deutsches Biomasseforschungszentrum gemeinnützige GmbH (coordinator of SECTOR) and IEA Bioenergy Task 32. Interested professionals are invited to attend the workshop.

Workshop Overview:
place: Milan, Italy
date: 21.06.2012
time: 13:30 to 17:30 o’clock
web: http://www.conference-biomass.com/Torrefaction-Workshop-Market.1184.0.html
SECTOR (Production of Solid Sustainable Energy Carriers from Biomass by Means of TORrefaction) is a large-scale European project with a strong consortium of 21 partners from industry and science. The project is focussed on the further development of torrefaction-based technologies for the production of solid bioenergy carriers up to pilot-plant scale and beyond, and on supporting the market introduction of torrefaction-based bioenergy carriers as a commodity renewable solid fuel. In this way, the SECTOR project is expected to shorten the time-to-market of torrefaction technology and to promote market introduction within stringent sustainability boundary conditions. The European Union provides funding for this project which is coordinated by DBFZ within the Seventh Framework Programme. The project started in January 2012 and has a duration of 42 months.

Task 32 (Biomass Combustion and Cofiring) is part of the IEA Bioenergy Implementing Agreement. In this network of currently 13 countries in and outside Europe, experts exchange strategic technical and non-technical information related to combustion and cofiring technologies, varying from woodstoves to biomass power plants and cofiring installations. This may be from nationally implemented R&D, or self-initiated projects within the task. Task 32 has a relatively strong focus on improved operational performance of commercial applications, which is reflected in the participation of several individual companies and industry groups in Task initiated studies, expert workshops, etc. Another important target group is policy makers, who need to set the appropriate boundary conditions for optimal market implementation based on sound scientific knowledge. More information can be found on the task 32 website at http://www.ieabioenergytask32.com.

DBFZ
SECTOR is currently one of the largest research projects at the DBFZ. Next to torrefaction the working focus of the institute is to clarify the question: “How is the best use of the potentials of bioenergy? To find answers to this question, the scientists of the DBFZ are looking for methods that facilitate an effective and sustained use of solid, liquid and gaseous bioenergy sources. To achieve this, DBFZ scientists are carrying out potential analyses, feasibility studies and practical tests in the laboratories of our research centre. The objectives they pursue are to make the utilisation of bioenergy technically simpler and safer, environmentally friendlier and economically more promising.