LowCoBio

The general objective of the proposed project is to accelerate the commercialization of bio-oil based production routes of renewable fuels. This will be achieved by a cross-cutting project approach where the production processes are developed further, at the same time as corrosion issues of the materials and processes are investigated. This is an important research area since corrosion constitutes one of the present barriers to scale-up. The project aims to provide guidance on changing the process conditions from pretreatment to liquefaction and upgrading towards reduced corrosivity of key intermediates and products and avoid the need for very expensive construction materials. The aim is to achieve this without compromising product quality or yield, where an economic process with a low carbon footprint is an important end goal. One of the goals of LowCoBio project is also to investigate corrosion behaviour facilitating materials development and future materials selection for equipment manufacturers and process operators. The processes to be improved are pyrolysis-based routes, and feedstock will be sustainable biomass (as specified in RED II Annex IX Part A) such as forest residues. Carbon yields from biomass to renewable fuel will be experimentally determined, and selected processes will be modelled by LCA to ensure low carbon footprints of the developed processes. By enabling the processing of pyrolysis oil-based feedstock at existing infrastructure, the project aims to contribute to near-time production of significant amounts of renewable fuels, resulting in significant CO2 reductions already by 2030.