The DTI has given Border Biofuels
and its consortium partners DynaMotive Europe Limited and Orenda Aerospace
Corporation £1.16m towards the £4.5m cost of an ambitious new biomass
combustion project, to be funded equally by the partners - the largest
the DTI has supported so far in the UK. The DTI grant is to aid in the
development of an integrated feedstock preparation system. Border Biofuels
will construct a 25-tonne/day facility utilising DynaMotive Europe’s
patented ‘fast pyrolysis’ technology, which they developed
in Canada. This converts biomass into a liquid fuel. The plant will
have a capacity to produce 12,000 litres of BioOil per day – enough
to power a sawmill. BioOil is a clean burning liquid fuel made from
renewable and non-depleting biomass such as timber, sawdust and sugar
cane bagasse.
Border Biofuels noted that ‘In order
to achieve high efficiencies, the Border Biofuels projects will use
pyrolysis technology to convert wood chips into Pyrolysis Liquid and
charcoal. The power generation projects currently being implemented
by Border Biofuels are based around a central fuel preparation and generation
site near to centres of forestry resource, with smaller satellite generation
stations utilising Pyrolysis Liquid that will be produced at the central
plant. This use of pyrolysis technology will enable generation at sites
remote from a biomass resource, which is major commercial advantage
in the future development of biomass fuelled energy capacity’.
