24-06-2013

Haldor Topsøe and partners complete the first production of gasoline from woody biomass

Haldor Topsøe A/S and its project partners: Andritz Carbona, Gas Technology Institute, Phillips 66 Company and UPM-Kymmene have successfully completed the first production of gasoline from woody biomass in an integrated 20 bbl/day demonstration plant located near Chicago.

This represents a key milestone because all the individual technology steps that have been demonstrated individually in the past for other purposes have now been integrated into one plant with the intention to produce transportation fuel. In the future, biomass may be a significant feedstock source and Haldor Topsøe expects that the combination of technologies demonstrated in this project will be part of the solution to the future fuel supply.

The integrated pilot plant consists of Andritz Carbona gasification and Andritz Carbona/Haldor Topsøe catalytic reforming that produces clean syngas, GTI/Uhde’s Morphysorb® process to capture acid gases and Haldor Topsøe’s TIGAS process to convert syngas to gasoline. Woody biomass is supplied by UPM-Kymmene and Phillips 66 Company will conduct single engine emission tests and moderate fleet testing of the renewable drop-in gasoline.

The project has been supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Golden Field Office, under its Integrated Biorefinery Platform program to demonstrate a new technology for thermochemical conversion of woody biomass into gasoline. The project team has worked under a cost sharing contract with DOE since 2010 (Award Number DE-EE0002874).  

The demonstration plant started operations in early 2013 and will continue with additional demonstration runs during the fall of 2013 and the spring of 2014. The primary objective of the additional demonstration runs is to validate performance and economics for commercialization of the technology.

For more information, please visit www.topsoe.com