BIOGASOLANA

Artículos científicos

• L. GRANDE, I: PEDROARENA, S.A. KORILI, A. GIL (2021): “Hydrothermal liquefaction of biomass as one of the most promising alternatives for the synthesis of advanced liquid biofuels: A review”, Materials, 14, (2021), 5286.
  https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14185286
• A. GIL (2022): “Challenges on Waste-to-energy for the valorization of industrial wastes: electricity, heat and cold, bioliquids and biofuels”, Environmental Nanotechnology, Monitoring & Management, 17, (2022), 100615.
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enmm.2021.100615
• I. PEDROARENA, L. GRANDE, J.J. TORREZ-HERRERA, S.A. KORILI, A. GIL (2023): “Analysis by temperature-programmed reduction of the catalytic system Ni-Mo-Pd/Al2O3”, Fuel, Volume 334, Part 2, 15 February 2023, 126789
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2022.126789

The BIOGASOLANA project showed the viability of the hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) process for producing advanced liquid biofuels using biowaste (sewage sludge). The HTL process provides an intermediate product called bio-crude that must undergo upgrading to directly obtain biofuel, or rather it must be co-processed with other refinery streams. The project was split into three development phases over 30 months. Phase one was planned for the discontinuous HTL tests for producing bio-crude. Phase two was planned for characterising the bio-crude and the upgrading or co-processing it. Lastly, phase three was planned for making the discontinuous HTL unit continuous to produce bio-crude continuously at TRL 4.

As a general goal for the project, it was proposed to show the viability of the HTL process to TRL 4 as a simple, sustainable and efficient solution for producing advanced liquid biofuels (biogasoline, biokerosene or biodiesel) using biowaste or waste that contains usable organic material.

In the project, work was done on a laboratory scale discontinuous reactor, and it was possible to lay the groundwork for a new pilot continuos HTL plant at TRL5 that CENER has developed and which is in the commissioning phase at their BIO2C facilities in Aoiz.

In regard to the specific goals of the project, the following can be highlighted.

• Partial Goal 1: Establish the viability of the HTL process at laboratory scale for producing bio-crude using biowaste, proof of concept. Evaluate the performance of the HTL process depending on the different product fractions obtained. It was achieved 100%. What is more, perhaps it is one of the major results of the project, because it validated the possibility of obtaining bio-crude discontinuously with characteristics that are more than adequate to be refined. Possibly, doing HTL tests on pretreated sludge (not done in this project), would improve the quality of the bio-crude by reducing the nitrogen content, a priori, by at least 50% (degree of nitrogen removal of the best pretreatment that has been developed).
• Partial Goal 2: Define the upgrading treatment or treatments that help improve the characteristics of the bio-crude. That was achieved, because the protocol to follow was obtained, and the most suitable catalysers from model molecules were selected.

As a conclusion to the project, it can be said that it made it possible to confirm the viability of producing bio-crude using waste via HTL, which made it possible to have the knowledge to design and build a continuous pilot plant at TRL5. Like all R&D+i projects, there is still room for improvement with optimising continuos production of bio-crude and upgrading. The intention of both entities is to continue with development outside the project to complete the activities and bring value to what has been achieved.