NEWS

Professor Victor Teixeira of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (centre) with members of Aston University Bioenergy Research Group (from left to right: Manisha Patel, Daniel Nowakowski, Ana Cortes, Professor Tony Bridgwater).

In November 2011, Professor Tony Bridgwater of Aston University Bioenergy Research Group in the UK will be hosting Professor Victor Teixeira from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The one-month visit will be funded by the UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering, as part of its Distinguished Visiting Fellowship Scheme, which encourages the exchange of knowledge and experiences between UK institutions and international eminent experts.

Currently Aston University Bioenergy Research Group (BERG) and the Nucleus of Catalysis group at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) are working in collaboration on upgrading primary vapours and liquid products from fast pyrolysis of biomass into higher quality products for use as transport fuels and chemicals within the EC sponsored DIBANET project. This involves production of catalysts in UFRJ and testing at Aston University, but does not provide hands-on experience of how catalysts perform in a fast pyrolysis process. BERG has a global reputation in biomass fast pyrolysis but is short of increasingly important catalyst production expertise to meet requirements for biofuels, while UFRJ has an international reputation in developing new catalysts but lacks fast pyrolysis processing units.

The aim of Professor Teixeira’s forthcoming visit to the UK is to allow him to test his catalysts in action.  This will improve the understanding of how to design and manufacture improved catalysts for upgrading fast pyrolysis vapours and liquids and better understand how to integrate catalysts into fast pyrolysis. This work aims to overcome the limitations of work conducted to date by using new catalysts and multi-stage processing, and will provide a unique opportunity to test the new catalysts on the primary vapour and liquid products from fast pyrolysis in Aston’s laboratory. Consideration will also be given to secondary catalytic upgrading to create a more focussed multistage process analogous to conventional refining.

Brazil already has a well established biofuel industry with substantial production of bioethanol. The recent discovery of oil reserves will refocus its interest onto the much higher energy density hydrocarbon fuels, and the outcomes from this project will be of considerable potential interest to the Brazilian petroleum and petrochemical industry. Similarly, the potential new and improved processes to be identified during Professor Teixeira’s visit to Aston University will help to give the UK a leading edge in renewable energy as well as enabling technology transfer to Brazil.

Members of the DIBANET research project team from Europe and Latin America recently came together for a two day research workshop hosted by the Carbolea Research at the University of Limerick, coordinators of the FP7 funded project.

The purpose of the workshop was to discuss progress in the development of the DIBANET process, with a heavy emphasis on the role of catalysis in the production of diesel miscible biofuels from European and Latin American feedstocks.

Acid hydrolysis of biomass feedstocks for the production of levulinic acid is being carried out in the DIBANET reactor system at the University of Limerick. Promising results from the development of a pre-treatment to reduce the recalcitrance of biomass, resulting in an improvement in the hydrolysis yields were discussed. A pre-treatment system utilising catalysts developed by UBA was also examined.

Latin American partner UFRJ are undertaking catalytic esterification reactions of levulinc acid and ethanol to produce ethyl levulinate and upgrading of bio-oil using catalysts developed in-house and by UBA.

The residual materials from the hyrdrolysis process are being examined by UK partner Aston University for their potential as a feedstock for pyrolysis to produce bio-oil. CERTH from Greece are investigating the role that catalysts can play in improving the yield of bio-oil from the pyrolysis of the acid hydrolysis residues.

The newest edition of DIBANET Newsletter is now available here with the summary of the DIBANET Networking Day and Summer School held in Rio de Janeiro as well as with the current project activities and results.

The presentations of the Networking Day Diesel fuels from wastes, residues and non-food crops of Latin America & Europe are now available:

The presentations cover the following themes:

  - Latin American and European feedstocks for diesel fuel
    production
  - Technologies for sustainable diesel fuel production and
    their products
  - Catalysis in diesel fuel production
  - Newly developed analytical techniques for online
    feedstock characterisation

Mr. Chet Culver, Governor of Iowa and representative of the Governors Biofuel Coalition in the United States, presented the latest developments in biofuels and biomass in Iowa. These developments are driven by the Iowa Power Fund, which was created to be a tool to promote the energy independence for Iowa.

^{”This fund has seen Iowa’s renewable energy grow from 5% to 20% of the energy sector in a short space of time. Biofuels currently have an 8 billion dollar impact on Iowa’s economy, which has generated 2 billion dollars in new household income and created and supported 50,000 Iowa jobs” said Prof. Michael H.B. Hayes, UL, coordinator of DIBANET. “If such a fund was made available in other countries to support and develop green technologies like DIBANET, not only would it ensure energy security but it would drive the Green economy and deliver much needed sustainable, green jobs.”}

^{Prof. Victor Teixeira da Silva-UFRJ, Mr. Luiz Antonio Rodrigues Elias (Minister of Science and Technology), Mr. Leandro Alves de Sousa, pictured at the award ceremony}



Mr. Leandro Alves de Sousa, a PhD student working in the DIBANET research team under the supervision of Prof. Victor Teixeira da Silva at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, recently received the Young Scientist Presidential Award in Brazil for his catalysis work which is a major theme of DIBANET research.

Applications are now being accepted for the DIBANET Summer School. The event is aimed at providing in-depth information on technologies for the sustainable production of second generation diesel fuels. The DIBANET Summer School is being organised in conjunction with the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

The School is designed for postgraduate students (Masters and PhD) in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, typically in their first or second years of research, who would like to engage together in the examination of technologies for the sustainable production of second generation diesel fuels, chemicals and biochars from the wastes, residues and non-food crops of Latin America and Europe.

Applications are now being accepted for the DIBANET Networking day which bring together key players in scientific communities and industry to discuss how Europe and Latin America can work together to produce diesel fuels sustainably and cheaply.

The 2^_nd edition of DIBANET Newsletter is now available here with the current project results other interesting details. 

The first DIBANET Newsletter was published in March 2010.

PhD Studentship - Biomass pyrolysis and upgrading

Applications are invited for a three year PhD studentship, supported by the European Commission through the DIBANET project to be undertaken within the Bioenergy Research Group (BERG) in Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry at Aston University. BERG is a founder member of the European Bioenergy Research Institute at Aston. The successful applicant will join an established experimental group working on biomass fast pyrolysis.