The official bionicfuel video... The Past - The Present - The Future

Bionic µBTL mf60d demonstrator entered test phase

Earlier this week the mf60d commercial demonstrator has been switched on for the first time, a success made possible by the excellent collaboration between Bionic R&D and its prime manufacturer SMERAL s.a. Brno in the Czech Republic.

See this Post by Bionic Laboratories BLG GmbH.

A few weeks of rigorous testing and adjustments have been kicked off. This phase includes a formal certification process by independent experts. Presentations for selected clients will commence afterwards.

Full public announcements can be expected in the first half of October.

Congratulations to everyone working hard to make this a success...

An operational mf60D complete with 2 condensers
and one quencher for the liquid fraction

Bionic Fuel MWDP commercialization on track

A most important step in the way forward for Bionic's MWDP technology has just been achieved: Bionic Fuel received a letter of intent for the first commercial reactor. It will be fully assembled at the Smeral Factory in Brno, Czech Republic and rigorously tested against its specifications. We will publish a full record of the manufacturing and testing process on this website. After all formal certifications are completed the reactor will be disassembled and shipped to its final location at the project site in Hawaii.

The client, Aina Koa Pono LLC (AKP) plans to order a second batch of 12 reactors which will be combined in a cluster configuration and feed their oil to a biorefinery. Outputs will be ASTM diesel, high quality biochar and fuel additives. In January AKP has signed a 20-year off-take agreement with HECO, the Hawaiian power company.

See also the news on the BFT website.

Is Bionic's MWDP a pyrolysis process?

In order to explore in depth the potential of the microfuel technology we need to compare it with other liquefying technologies on the market.

Today I want to start with MWDP's closest relative: pyrolysis.

Task 34 of the IEA Bioenergy initiative focuses on Pyrolysis from Biomass. They run a very informative website that has been around for some time and was integrated into Task 34 some time ago. I suggest visiting that site to anyone who wants to know more.

What is pyrolysis?

The most simple definition can be found on the mentioned website: "Pyrolysis is thermal decomposition occurring in the absence of oxygen". Following that definition MWDP is definitely a form of pyrolysis as the decomposition is at least in part thermal, while assisted by microwaves and the zeolite as explained in the MWDP article. On the other hand, it doesn't easily fit into any of the common categories of pyrolysis.

What types of pyrolysis can be identified?

Usually 3 types of pyrolysis are recognized: Fast, intermediate and slow. Most data of the following table is again taken from the definitions on the Task34 website (MWDP data has been added by us):

Mode	Conditions	Liquid	Char	Gas
Fast	≈500°C, short hot vapor residence time >1sec	75%	12%	13%
Intermediate	≈500°C, hot vapor residence time 10-30 sec	50%	25%	25%
Slow-Torrefaction	≈290°C, solids residence time 30 min	-	82%	18%
Slow-Carbonization	≈400°C, long vapor residence time, hrs > days	30%	35%	35%
Gasification	≈800°C	5%	10%	85%
MWDP	≈280°C, solids residence time 30-45 min	35%	50%	15%

We can see clearly that MWDP fits in none of the 3 categories. Lower temperatures also suggest a higher energy efficiency of the process. Next lets have a look at typical quality parameters.

Pyrolysis oil is usually called bio-oil, which is a bit misleading at a water content between 20-30% which cannot be separated easily. It can only be burned in direct combustion or upgraded in complex, large scale refinery-style processing. The pyrolysis liquid has a very low heating value of typically 16-19 MJ/kg. For more quality information see again our reference website.

Now we compare this with what we call bio-oil in the MWDP process: Water content is usually below 3%, direct combustion is a possibility, but it can better be used directly in any HFO specified engine, which are usually stationary diesel engines in power plants or on ships. The biggest quality difference can be noticed in the heating value, which reaches up to 45 MJ/kg, similar to standard diesel fuel. Upgrading of MWDP derived bio-oil to achieve ultra low sulfur diesel or SPK (=biojetfuel) is a relatively simple process mostly involving 2 phases: a secondary distillation and a hydrotreatment, both typical phases in any modern refinery.

But not only the MWDP bio-oil shows such big quality differences, the same thing is true for the char fraction. Heating values of up to 30 MJ/kg are unprecedented in any other pyrolysis technology as much as other quality parameters. MWDP char meets the highest quality parameters of industrial applications, where all other biochar was rejected as insufficient.

So where might the future of pyrolysis lie?

Some authors have started already to add a forth category of catalyst assisted processes. While not yet commonly accepted, that is actually the right category for TCDP and MWDP and probably the only category that will be able to bring about true innovation for pyrolysis.