Haldor Topsøe's TIGAS Technology to be Demonstrated in the US
08 December 2009
Haldor Topsøe will demonstrate a new technology in the USA – a technology which converts wood to fuel. The American Department of Energy (DOE) has recently announced that the technology will be supported with US $25 million under the US recovery act.
A dream wood-fuel project
“It is a dream project! The partners represent the entire value chain from wood suppliers to fuel stations, and the technology we will demonstrate together is the most efficient for converting wood to transportation fuel,” says Claus Hviid Christensen, vice president for emerging technology from Topsøe.
“It is quite impressive that we are heading such a strong consortium, which has our TIGAS process as the heart of the technology,” he adds.
Partners include the paper and pulp company UPM-Kymmene who will supply wood for the demonstration, and ConocoPhillips, one of the world’s greatest oil companies, who will show that the TIGAS fuel can be used within the existing infrastructure.
TIGAS – bio-fuel with high efficiency
TIGAS stands for Topsøe integrated gasoline synthesis. The project will demonstrate efficient conversion of 25t of wood per day into transportation fuel. This is the last step before the technology will be made commercially available. In industrial plants, more than 1,000t of wood will be made into fuel, and the plants are expected to be competitive as soon as the technology has been demonstrated.
“About 60% of the energy in the wood ends up in the fuel – and that is a very high efficiency for the production of bio fuels,” says Poul-Erik Højlund Nielsen, project manager in Topsøe’s R&D.
Biomass and waste for fuel
Originally Topsøe developed the TIGAS process in the 80s in order to convert natural gas to fuel. “Today it is of major satisfaction that we have developed the technology so that we can use non-fossil resources as our raw material,” says Claus Hviid Christensen.
“In the future we will probably be able to use any biomass to produce fuel – and maybe even household waste.”
Demonstration in the USA
The demonstration will take place at the Gas Technology Institute in Des Plaines, USA, where a wood gasifier is already running. Topsøe supplies the TIGAS technology, and the American subsidiary Haldor Topsoe will lead the demonstration.
