Biomass to liquid

Biomass to liquid (BtL or BMtL) is a multi-step process of producing synthetic hydrocarbon fuels made from biomass via a thermochemical route.^[1]

Main processes

The process uses the whole plant to improve the carbon dioxide balance and increase yield.

• The Fischer–Tropsch process is used to produce synfuels from gasified biomass. Carbonaceous material is gasified and the gas is processed to make purified syngas (a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen). The Fischer-Tropsch polymerizes syngas into diesel-range hydrocarbons. While biodiesel and bio-ethanol production so far only use parts of a plant, i.e. oil, sugar, starch or cellulose, BtL production can gasify and utilize the entire plant.
• Flash pyrolysis — producing bio-oil (pyrolysis oil), char and gas at temperatures between 350-550 °C and residence times < 1 second (also called anhydrous pyrolysis).
• Catalytic depolymerization — using heat and catalysts to separate usable diesel fuel from hydrocarbon wastes.

See also

• Bioconversion of biomass to mixed alcohol fuels
• Bioliquids
• Coal to liquid
• Gas to liquid
• Gasification
• NExBTL — despite the name BtL, the feedstock is plant oil, not whole plants.
• Non-food crops
• Synthetic fuel
• Thermal Depolymerization
• Vegetable oil refining
• DMF fuel

References

1. Biomass to liquid term

• Andrei Y. Khodakov, Wei Chu, and Pascal Fongarland “Advances in the Development of Novel Cobalt Fischer-Tropsch Catalysts for Synthesis of Long-Chain Hydrocarbons and Clean Fuels” Chemical Reviews, 2007, volume 107, pp 1692–1744. doi:10.1021/cr050972v

External links

• EUROBIOREF : European Multilevel Integrated Biorefinery Design for Sustainable Biomass Processing
• SWAFEA : Sustainable Way for Alternative Fuels and Energy for Aviation
• "Synthetic Diesel May Play a Significant Role as Renewable Fuel in Germany" at USDA FAS website
• Enzymatic Hydrolysis at DOE EERE website