TU Munich and ATZ to cooperate on research into biomass conversion and combustion
The Technische Universität München (TUM) and the Applikations- und Technikzentrum (ATZ) in Sulzbach-Rosenberg (Bayern), have signed [*German] a cooperation agreement for research into new biomass combustion and conversion technologies.
A new dedicated development and test center that took 9 months to build - the Verbrennungstechnikum für Biomasse und Reststoffe - was opened today by the Minister of the Economy Erwin Huber. It hosts a series of experimental and modular pilot plants to test combustion techniques, to develop novel and efficient ways to use generated heat and to study processes to clean emissions and combustion gases of different types of solid biofuel. This way the center can directly develop and test new bioenergy technologies without having to go through the stage of developing project-specific pilot plants.
The agreement between TUM (the 'MIT' of Europe) and the ATZ was signed by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang A. Herrmann (rector of the TUM) and Prof. Dr. Martin Faulstich and Gerold Dimaczek (both of the ATZ). It creates a synergy between the TUM's strong position in the field of fundamental research, and the ATZ's leading capacities in pilot-scale testing. Seven young engineers of the TUM will work at the ATZ to obtain their PhD's in the field of bioconversion. A new post-grad curriculum based on the new research capacities is in the works.
The ATZ was created as a combustion and energy research center at a time when Germany's steel industry was in full bloom, but gradually it was transformed into a leading research institute with a focus on decentralised energy production from biomass and waste materials.
The center's new impulse is spread over two common pathways for the conversion of biomass into energy:
1. One department studies thermochemical transformation processes: combustion, gasification and pyrolysis (overview of projects). Key objectives of the research are:
2. The department that studies the biochemical conversion of biomass, organic waste streams and water (overview of projects) has the following objectives:
energy :: sustainability :: ethanol :: biodiesel :: biomass :: biogas :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: pyrolysis :: combustion :: gasification :: Germany ::
The ATZ center houses around 40 researchers. The institution was created by the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the state of Bayern, as a public venture. It has a long list of innovations on its name and has collaborated with some of Germany's leading heavy industry enterprises.
Prof. Martin Faulstich, Ordinarius for Raw Materials and Energy Technologies at the TUM and founder of the Wissenschaftszentrums Straubing für Nachwachsende Rohstoffe (Straubing Science Center for Renewable Energy) becomes scientific director of the new cooperation, whereas Gerold Dimaczek is responsible for the operational management of the venture.
An earlier EU-funded cooperation between ATZ, the Wissenschaftszentrum Straubing and Hans Huber AG resulted in the construction of Europe's largest and most high-tech pilot plant to test the conversion of sludge to energy (see Sludge2Energy).
The new TUM-AZT center has already created several partnerships with third parties: Tyczka Energie AG will develop biogas networks for industrial zones, whereas a project for the thermochemical conversion of lignocellulosic biomass is under negotiation with a major industrial conglomerate .
More information:
Informationsdienst Wissenschaft: TU München unterzeichnet Kooperationsvertrag mit ATZ Entwicklungszentrum in Sulzbach-Rosenberg - June 20, 2007.
Technische Universität München: Ohne Ingenieure keine bessere Umwelt - June 20, 2007.
Sludge2Energy homepage.
ATZ Entwicklungszentrum homepage.
Article continues
A new dedicated development and test center that took 9 months to build - the Verbrennungstechnikum für Biomasse und Reststoffe - was opened today by the Minister of the Economy Erwin Huber. It hosts a series of experimental and modular pilot plants to test combustion techniques, to develop novel and efficient ways to use generated heat and to study processes to clean emissions and combustion gases of different types of solid biofuel. This way the center can directly develop and test new bioenergy technologies without having to go through the stage of developing project-specific pilot plants.
The agreement between TUM (the 'MIT' of Europe) and the ATZ was signed by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang A. Herrmann (rector of the TUM) and Prof. Dr. Martin Faulstich and Gerold Dimaczek (both of the ATZ). It creates a synergy between the TUM's strong position in the field of fundamental research, and the ATZ's leading capacities in pilot-scale testing. Seven young engineers of the TUM will work at the ATZ to obtain their PhD's in the field of bioconversion. A new post-grad curriculum based on the new research capacities is in the works.
The ATZ was created as a combustion and energy research center at a time when Germany's steel industry was in full bloom, but gradually it was transformed into a leading research institute with a focus on decentralised energy production from biomass and waste materials.
The center's new impulse is spread over two common pathways for the conversion of biomass into energy:
1. One department studies thermochemical transformation processes: combustion, gasification and pyrolysis (overview of projects). Key objectives of the research are:
- the development and optimisation of integrated biomass power plants
- the development and optimisation of new combustion technologies
- research on the treatment, scrubbing and purification of process gases
- the development of new burner technologies
2. The department that studies the biochemical conversion of biomass, organic waste streams and water (overview of projects) has the following objectives:
- develop and optimise anaerobic conversion processes (for the production of biogas and bioethanol)
- improve and develop microbiological purification of biogenic gases (such as the upgrading of biogas to natural gas quality biomethane)
- the creation of innovative pretreatment processes for organic waste, specifically the continued development of the trademarked ATZ-TDH technique (a pretreatment technique that optimises the anaerobic fermentation of waste streams), developed in-house
energy :: sustainability :: ethanol :: biodiesel :: biomass :: biogas :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: pyrolysis :: combustion :: gasification :: Germany ::
The ATZ center houses around 40 researchers. The institution was created by the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the state of Bayern, as a public venture. It has a long list of innovations on its name and has collaborated with some of Germany's leading heavy industry enterprises.
Prof. Martin Faulstich, Ordinarius for Raw Materials and Energy Technologies at the TUM and founder of the Wissenschaftszentrums Straubing für Nachwachsende Rohstoffe (Straubing Science Center for Renewable Energy) becomes scientific director of the new cooperation, whereas Gerold Dimaczek is responsible for the operational management of the venture.
An earlier EU-funded cooperation between ATZ, the Wissenschaftszentrum Straubing and Hans Huber AG resulted in the construction of Europe's largest and most high-tech pilot plant to test the conversion of sludge to energy (see Sludge2Energy).
The new TUM-AZT center has already created several partnerships with third parties: Tyczka Energie AG will develop biogas networks for industrial zones, whereas a project for the thermochemical conversion of lignocellulosic biomass is under negotiation with a major industrial conglomerate .
More information:
Informationsdienst Wissenschaft: TU München unterzeichnet Kooperationsvertrag mit ATZ Entwicklungszentrum in Sulzbach-Rosenberg - June 20, 2007.
Technische Universität München: Ohne Ingenieure keine bessere Umwelt - June 20, 2007.
Sludge2Energy homepage.
ATZ Entwicklungszentrum homepage.
Article continues
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Engineers develop higher-energy liquid transportation fuel from sugar
Reporting in the June 21 issue of the journal Nature, chemical and biological engineering Professor James Dumesic and his research team describe a two-stage process for turning biomass-derived sugar into 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF), a liquid transportation fuel with 40 percent greater energy density than ethanol.
The prospects of diminishing oil reserves and the threat of global warming caused by releasing otherwise trapped carbon into the atmosphere have researchers searching for a sustainable, carbon-neutral fuel to reduce global reliance on fossil fuels. By chemically engineering sugar through a series of steps involving acid and copper catalysts, salt and butanol as a solvent, UW-Madison researchers created a path to just such a fuel.
Not only does dimethylfuran have a higher energy content, it also addresses other ethanol shortcomings. DMF is not soluble in water and therefore cannot become contaminated by absorbing water from the atmosphere. DMF is stable in storage and, in the evaporation stage of its production, and only consumes one-third of the energy required to evaporate a solution of ethanol produced by fermentation for biofuel applications.
Dumesic and graduate students Yuriy Román-Leshkov, Christopher J. Barrett and Zhen Y. Liu developed a new catalytic process for creating DMF by expanding upon earlier work. As reported in the June 30, 2006, issue of the journal Science, Dumesic's team improved the process for making an important chemical intermediate, hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), from sugar (earlier post on another, more recent breakthrough on HMF production):
energy :: sustainability :: ethanol :: DMF :: HMF :: biofuels :: biomass :: sugar :: carbohydrate economy ::
Industry uses millions of tons of chemical intermediates, largely sourced from petroleum or natural gas, as the raw material for many modern plastics, drugs and fuels.
The team's method for making HMF and converting it to DMF is a balancing act of chemistry, pressure, temperature and reactor design. Fructose is initially converted to HMF in water using an acid catalyst in the presence of a low-boiling-point solvent. The solvent extracts HMF from water and carries it to a separate location. Although other researchers had previously converted fructose to HMF, Dumesic's research group made a series of improvements that raised the HMF output and made the HMF easier to extract. For example, the team found that adding salt (NaCl) dramatically improves the extraction of HMF from the reactive water phase and helps suppress the formation of impurities.
In the June 21, 2007, issue of Nature, Dumesic's team describes its process for converting HMF to DMF over a copper-based catalyst. The conversion removes two oxygen atoms from the compound lowering the boiling point, the temperature at which a liquid turns to gas, and making it suitable for use as transportation fuel. Salt, while improving the production of HMF, presented an obstacle in the production of DMF. It contributed chloride ions that poisoned the conventional copper chromite catalyst. The team instead developed a copper-ruthenium catalyst providing chlorine resistance and superior performance.
Dumesic says more research is required before the technology can be commercialized. For example, while its environmental health impact has not been thoroughly tested, the limited information available suggests DMF is similar to other current fuel components. Some challenges remain to be addressed, but his work shows that it is possible to produce a liquid transportation fuel from biomass that has energy density comparable to petrol.
More information:
Yuriy Román-Leshkov, Christopher J. Barrett1, Zhen Y. Liu & James A. Dumesic, "Production of dimethylfuran for liquid fuels from biomass-derived carbohydrates", Nature 447, 982-985 (21 June 2007) | doi:10.1038/nature05923
George W. Huber, Juben N. Chheda, Christopher J. Barrett, James A. Dumesic, "Production of Liquid Alkanes by Aqueous-Phase Processing of Biomass-Derived Carbohydrates", Science 3 June 2005: Vol. 308. no. 5727, pp. 1446 - 1450; DOI: 10.1126/science.1111166
University of Wisconsin-Madison: Engineers develop higher-energy liquid-transportation fuel from sugar - June 20, 2007.
Biopact: Breakthrough in biorefining: scientists obtain high yields of HMF from sugar - June 14, 2007.
Article continues
posted by Biopact team at 9:26 PM 0 comments links to this post