by Katherine Albion, PhD

Research is underway to develop pyrolysis technology for the conversion of agricultural waste into fuels and valuable products. Pyrolysis produces bio-oil that can be shipped to a biorefinery for refining into green chemicals and biofuels.

Fast pyrolysis research is currently conducted by the Institute for Chemicals and Fuels from Alternative Resources (ICFAR) resea.rch group at the University of Western Ontario and is soon to begin at the Bioindustrial Innovation Centre (BIC) at the Research Park, Sarnia-Lambton Campus.

Pyrolysis is chemical decomposition by thermal cracking of organic materials in the absence of oxygen. The process produces condensable gases, from which liquid bio-oil can be recovered, and solids consisting of bio-char and ash. Solid products can be used to replace coke as a fuel or for use as a fertilizer.

Fast pyrolysis involves rapid heating of biomass particles and short product vapor residence time resulting in high yields of bio-oil. Potential biomass feedstocks for bio-oil production include: wood and forestry waste, energy crops, dried distillers grains, agricultural residues

(corn stover, flax straw, rice straw and sugarcane residues), food processing waste (grape skins and tomato skins), and other waste products (waste water treatment sludge and animal litter).
Pyrolysis is favorable compared to other fuel production alternatives: combustion produces dioxin emissions, partial combustion gasification produces mainly CO, CO2, H2 and H2O, anaerobic digestion gasification is time intensive and requires a large area of land. Bioethanol and biodiesel currently use food crops and require a large input of fossil fuels, and all methods require biomass transportation.

Controversy surrounds the conversion of biomass to energy due to competition with food, land requirements, fertilizer and pesticide use, transportation to a processing facility, and energy intensive processing. Research at the BIC and ICFAR addresses these issues: agricultural waste products avoid the use of food, product gases are used to heat the reactor, the mobile unit travels to where the feedstock is grown, solid products can be used as fertilizers and the bio-oil can be used in fuels, food additives, insecticides and pharmaceuticals.

ICFAR is led by Dr. Franco Berruti and Dr. Cedric Briens, as director and research director, and has many partners including Agri-Therm Ltd., Dynamotive Energy Systems, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and FP Innovations. ICFAR research facilities include existing and future laboratories at Western as well as construction of an off-campus location.
We are developing a pyrolysis research lab at the BIC in collaboration with ICFAR. The facilities will consist of bubbling bed and downer pyrolysis reactors, capable of processing agricultural and industrial feedstocks, biomass processing equipment and advanced analytical equipment. Design and construction of the downer reactor will be completed during Summer 2008 with the bubbling bed reactor completed later this year. Research projects at the BIC will be conducted by summer, Master’s and PhD students from Western. Graduate students awarded NSERC IPS (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Industrial Postgraduate Scholarship) will conduct work terms at the BIC to support their thesis work.

Pyrolysis research activities conducted at the BIC will include producing sustainable and valuable bio-oil products and co-products from waste materials and commercialization of clean fuels. Biomass feedstocks will be agricultural and industrial waste materials produced in the region. Production of high value bio-oil will be achieved by optimizing reactor operating conditions, and additional uses of the co-products will be identified. Process optimization will lead to biorefining at the location of feedstock production, where bio-oil can be used on-site or for commercialization.

Research at the BIC will also contribute and support the national bioenergy projects suggested by Briens and Berruti at the Bio-Conversion Workshop held at the Research Park on May 22-23, 2008. Briens and Berruti suggested national bioenergy projects to promote the development of pyrolysis projects in different regions of Canada based on the availability of local biomass feedstocks.

These projects include:
- Pyrolysis of wood, forestry waste and co-products from agricultural, food processing and biofuels production to produce industrial or agricultural fuels as a substitute for natural gas and heavy fuel oils
- Production of biochar for fertilizers, activated carbon, syngas and for use in steel making
- Syngas production from all pyrolysis products to produce petrochemicals and green automotive fuels
- Co-processing of biomass and heavy oil to produce automotive fuels and petrochemicals

Canada is poised to be a world leader in the co-processing of biomass and heavy oil due to the large quantities of biomass materials available and existing oil refinery infrastructure. At the forefront of research in this area, the pyrolysis lab at the BIC will benefit from the close proximity of chemical and oil industries and agricultural sector.

Dr. Katherine Albion (kalbion2@uwo.ca) is directing the development of a pyrolysis research lab at the Bioindustrial Innovation Centre in collaboration with ICFAR.