Researchers produce renewable fuel from bio-oil

London: In a first, researchers have produced renewable fuel from pyrolysis bio-oil, a synthetic fuel being considered a substitute for petroleum.

Pyrolysis bio-oil is produced by rapidly heating and then cooling the forest residues in an oxygen-free environment.

By co-gasification with black liquor, a renewable fuel was produced by researchers in Lulea University of Technology's Green Fuels -- one of the world's most advanced pilot plant for gasification of biomass to synthesis gas and green fuels, sciencedaily.com reported.

"We have made a breakthrough developing the new process and managed to get 1+1 to be equal to three," said Erik Furusjo, project manager at LUT.

"Black liquor makes it possible to gasify pyrolysis oil at a lower temperature, which provides better yield than if the raw materials were gasified separately," said Furusjo.

By converting forest residues into a liquid, called bio-oil or pyrolysis oil, energy density was increased and transportation facilitated.

The conversion of the pyrolysis oil to a renewable transportation fuel was made through a process called gasification.

It was performed in combination with black liquor that was a by-product from pulp and paper production.

The project, headed by Furusjo, called "Catalytic gasification" and was financed by the Swedish Energy Agency and an industry consortium.

If one truck load of pyrolysis oil is mixed with black liquor and converted into fuel, the total volume is sufficient to drive a car ten laps around the Earth.