Collaborative group proposes natural carbon use

The SteamBio collaboration, which consists of eleven partners, has proposed using naturally-abundant biocarbon to manufacture bio-based plastics and chemicals, as well as for renewable energy generation.

SteamBio will use EU funding to demonstrate the economic viability of useable biocarbon derived from indigenous forestry and farming residues

SteamBio said replacing carbon with its “greener” counterpart would create a more secure and sustainable future.

To help get its idea off the ground, SteamBio has won financial support through the EU 2020 Horizon project, a research and innovation programme with roughly €80 billion (£63bn) of funding.

Torrefaction

SteamBio’s decarbonisation model is based on the process of superheated steam torrefaction of forestry and agricultural residues.

Torrefaction is a thermal conditioning process that makes biomass water resistant and converts it into a coal-like material. A team at the German Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology has developed torrefaction into a continuous industrial drying process that is designed to recover volatiles from the condensate stream.

SteamBio will use the EU funding to demonstrate the economic viability of useable biocarbon that has been derived from indigenous forestry and farming residues in tonnage quantities.

So far, the group has selected six reference-materials that are abundant and available from European forestry and farming operations.

A demonstration unit with a throughput of 500kg/hour is currently under design and construction and will be deployed at different rural locations by January 2017.