View article

The pre-treatment step has a significant influence on the performance of bioenergy chains, especially on logistics. Torrefaction, pelletisation and pyrolysis technologies can convert biomass at modest scales into dense energy carriers that ease transportation and handling. Torrefaction is a very promising technology due to its high process efficiency (94%) compared to pelletisation (84%) and pyrolysis (64%).¹ When torrefaction is combined with pelletisation, the product (TOP²) energy content is as high as 20.4–22.7GJ/ton. The primary energy requirement for TOP delivery from Latin America to Rotterdam harbour can be as low as 0.05GJ/GJ, in contrast to 0.12GJ/GJ for pellets and 0.08GJ/GJ_HHV for pyrolysis oil. TOP can be delivered to Europe at over 74€/ton (3.3€/GJ) and electricity could be produced as cheap as 4.4€cent/kWh_e from an existing co-firing plant. Fisher Tropisch fuel costs 6€/GJ_HHV for TOP, 7€/GJ …