Brief Description

Thermal Catalytic Reforming Reactor (TCR) for the conversion of waste biomass and residues into liquid biofuels, syngas, biochar and green hydrogen.

Detailed Description

The TCR® is an award winning technology, recently winning the KETBIO award as the most innovative EU biotechnology out of 300 screened European technologies. It is composed of a three-stage thermo-chemical process combining catalytic pyrolysis, cracking and reforming to decompose organic materials into gas, oil and char while upgrading these products throughout the process. The TCR process has been tried, tested and validated at TRL-6 to TRL-8, defendant by scale by Fraunhofer UMSICHT (Germany). Carbon-based, organic solid material enters the TCR reactor through an injection system. The feedstock is heated in a reactor to temperatures ranging 400-500°C. At higher temperatures, complex organic molecules are decomposed into carbon, carbon-monoxide, carbon-dioxide, hydrocarbons and water. Carbon and minerals contained in the feedstock form a solid char while other products form a vapour phase. A second stage fixed bed reactor is used to upgrade the process products to unprecedented quality.

Specifications/attachments

Pyrolysis reactor with 30 kg/h feed throughput. Feeding system Reactor system Vapour phase cooling and bio oil separation system Gas analytics

Uses/applications

The TCR is available to companies wishing to test and convert biomass waste and residues into biofuels. The unit is used for research purposes only. SME usage to date includes companies Sterling Power, Green Fuels, Pyrmin, Pressvess, Circulus Energy and Kew Technologies. The equipment is available for industrial testing of feedstock’s subject to funding or co-financing of project costs. Industrial collaboration agreements with the University of Birmingham or research grant awards must be in place before access is granted. Each project will differ in cost depending on the trial campaign length and amount of time allocated. Each project will offer full testing of biomass materials in terms of mass and energy balances. Full process analytics and biomass pre-treatment (drying and pelletising) can also be included as additional extras.