Pyrolysis biofuel production

The consortium will work on the enhancement of pyrolysis to process waste biomass to produce an alternative to existing biofuels at mass scale, to blend with fossil fuels.

A key advantage of developing a process that will use existing organic waste, rather than plant crops, is that it overcomes many of the issues associated with some current biofuels, and can lead to greater carbon savings by avoiding methane emissions from landfill.

Carbon Trust analysis shows that the carbon footprint of this new pyrolysis biofuel could potentially achieve a carbon saving of 95 per cent when compared to fossil fuels. According to the E4Tech Report, commissioned by the Carbon Trust in 2009, this is a significantly higher carbon saving than some existing biofuels, which also do not currently factor in the impacts of land use change when calculating the carbon saving.

The consortium aims to produce its first biofuel from a pilot plant in 2014 and there is potential using UK biomass to scale production to more than two million tonnes per year. According to the Carbon Trust, this will generate a saving of seven million tonnes of carbon, which is the equivalent to the annual emissions of three million cars.