The Bioenergy Research Group (BERG) at Aston University is at the centre of a £1.4million project aimed at developing technology for producing and fractioning bio-oil components.
The idea is that the bio-oil components can be used as a basis for a biorefinery that produces green chemicals, transportation fuels and energy. It is partly funded by the Research Council of Norway and could develop bio-oil technology that would transform biomass into biofuels through fast pyrolysis.
Under the project, biomass liquefaction is carried out using fast pyrolosis, which is a pre-treatment technology that is flexible in terms of feedstock. It also allows for efficient energy densification that makes the technology suitable for decentralised bio-oil production of wood waste materials and favourable transport costs.
According to Tony Bridgwater, the professor of chemical engineering and head of BERG at Aston University, it is hoped that the technologies could make bio-oil viable on a large scale at lower costs.
BERG has already co-ordinated 11 EC sponsored RTD projects and is managing SUPERGEN, which is a UK University Consortium in thermal biomass conversion.
