BioFESS

Duration
1.11.2015 - 31.10.2018

The main objective of this project is to develop a concept for a biorefinery to produce sustainable and technologically advanced materials from low-cost and readily available feedstocks, such as forest residues, corn waste and digestate.

The materials produced are medium surface area activated carbons for upgrading biogas from biogas plants and high surface area activated carbons for storing electrical energy in supercapacitors. For this purpose, biomasses are first pretreated by pyrolysis or hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) and then activated physically with CO or chemically with KOH, ZnCl and H PO. Each step of the biorefinery should be studied, evaluated and optimized theoretically and, if necessary, with laboratory-scale experiments. This includes the calculation of theoretical mass and energy balances, as well as the determination of optimized parameters for pyrolysis, hydrothermal carbonization and activation. Finally, the produced activated carbons will be tested as adsorbents for CO in biogas systems (medium surface activated carbons) and as electrodes in energy storage systems (high surface activated carbons).

The project will be realized in cooperation with two Latin American partners (Mexico and Colombia) and one partner from Europe (Portugal), who are intensively involved in the research field of green materials, but who have so far worked separately. This international consortium offers the possibility to establish synergies, thus demonstrating the feasibility of this biorefinery concept.
Das Hauptziel dieses Projekts ist die Entwicklung eines Konzeptes für eine Bioraffinerie zur Herstellung von nachhaltigen und technologisch hochwertigen Materialien aus kostengünstigen und leicht verfügbaren Ausgangsmaterialien, wie Forstrückstände, Maisabfälle und Gärreste.