April 3, 2008
Vancouver, BC, Canada
Dynamotive’s “Hydro-Reforming” Process Indicates a Low Cost Path for BioOil to be Co-Processed in Oil Refineries
“BioOil could be a Renewable Source of Hydrocarbons from Biomass”
VANCOUVER, BC, CANADA, April 3, 2008 - Dynamotive Energy Systems Corporation (OTCBB: DYMTF), a leader in cellulose based fuels technology, announced that its Director and Head of Research, Dr. Desmond Radlein has disclosed today that initial tests conducted on hydro-reforming of BioOil have shown positive results indicating a low cost path to BioOil upgrading. Comments from Dr. Radlein follow.
“BioOil is a highly oxygenated, polar hydrocarbon product that typically contains about 46 wt% oxygen. Some of the oxygen is present as free water which constitutes about 25 wt% of the BioOil. These properties render BioOil immiscible with fuel grade hydrocarbons which typically contain little or no oxygen.
In principle, oxygen could be removed by hydrotreating BioOil with hydrogen. But two facts militate against this. First, raw BioOil is thermally unstable with a great propensity to form coke when subjected to hydrotreatment temperatures. Secondly, removing all the oxygen with hydrogen would require about 60 kg per tonne of BioOil to give at most a 50 wt% yield of oxygen free hydrocarbons.
Unfortunately, at the present time, hydrogen is expensive at the small scales at which BioOil is typically produced. The lowest cost hydrogen is available at petroleum refineries, so it is desirable to find a low cost process to convert BioOil to a form in which it could be co-processed in an oil refinery. Given this, we concentrated on finding a low cost solution.
Our “hydro-reforming” process indicates that, with continued research to optimize our findings and process, we have a path to achieve these objectives. Our process has the following features:
- The BioOil is stabilized so it can be hydrotreated in a refinery without the risk of coke formation.
- It is deoxygenated to a sufficient degree to render it miscible with typical refinery hydrotreater feeds.
- The oxygen content is substantially reduced so that any further hydrogen requirements during hydrotreatment at a refinery are minimal.
- Hydrogen is internally generated from the water present by reforming a portion of the BioOil so that most of the oxygen is released as carbon dioxide and the net hydrogen requirement is very small (about 18 kg per tonne).
- The product is water free as the residual water forms a separate phase.
- Only a small amount of gaseous hydrocarbons like methane (that represent a waste of both carbon and hydrogen) are formed.
- Acetic acid present in the raw BioOil can be recovered as a valuable by-product.
Rejection of the oxygen as carbon dioxide rather than water does decrease the ultimate maximum yields of hydrocarbon fuels - from ~ 50 % to about ~ 35 %. But we believe this is more than offset by the benefits listed above.
Process conditions are relatively mild (e.g. pressure < 1200 psi and temperature < 350 °C). Together with the reduced requirements for hydrogen it may be expected to enable small scale processing of BioOil to provide a renewable source of hydrocarbons from whole ligno-cellulosic biomass.”
We will continue our research in this area with a view to optimizing our findings and process. It is early days, but we believe that the path is sound. While the company is optimistic about the path that these findings indicate, there can however be no assurance that the company’s research will in fact ultimately yield a technically and commercially viable process.
About Dynamotive
Dynamotive Energy Systems Corporation is an energy solutions provider headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, with offices in the USA, UK and Argentina. Its carbon/greenhouse gas neutral fast pyrolysis technology uses medium temperatures and oxygen-less conditions to turn dry, waste cellulosic biomass into BioOil for power and heat generation. BioOil can be further converted into vehicle fuels and chemicals. Photographs of the Guelph and West Lorne plants may be seen on the company's website
www.dynamotive.com.
About BioOil® Biofuel
BioOil® is an industrial fuel produced from cellulose waste material. When combusted it produces substantially less smog-precursor nitrogen oxides (‘NOx’) emissions than conventional oil as well as little or no sulfur oxide gases (‘SOx’), which are a prime cause of acid rain. BioOil® and BioOil Plus™ are price-competitive replacements for heating oils #2 and #6 that are widely used in industrial boilers and furnaces. They have been EcoLogo certified, having met stringent environmental criteria for industrial fuels as measured by Environment Canada’s Environmental Choice Program. BioOil® can be produced from a variety of residue cellulosic biomass resources and is not dependent on food-crop production.
Contacts:
Nathan Neumer, Director of Communications, 604-267-6042
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Email: info@dynamotive.com
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