SECTOR Project successfully finalised!

The European FP7 project SECTOR (Production of Solid Sustainable Energy Carriers from Biomass by Means of Torrefaction) has successfully ended in December 2015 after 4 years of research and was one of the major activities to shorten the time to market for torrefaction technologies.

The Production of Solid Sustainable Energy Carriers from Biomass by Means of Torrefaction - SECTOR -

Within SECTOR, 21 partners from 9 European countries are working jointly together to advance the state of the art of torrefaction as one of the major technologies to achieve the EU renewable energy targets.


Here you can find the link to all papers or books which have been published within the SECTOR project.

Jan Hari Arti Khalsa, Diana Leistner, Nadja Weller, Leilani I. Darvell, Ben Dooley (2016) "Torrefied Biomass Pellets—Comparing Grindability in Different Laboratory Mills" published in Energies → doi:10.3390/en9100794 

Daniela Thrän, Janet Witt, Kay Schaubach, Jaap Kiel, Michiel Carbo, Jörg Maier, Collins Ndibe, Jaap Koppejan, Eija Alakangas, Stefan Majer, Fabian Schipfer (2016) “Moving torrefaction towards market introduction – Technical improvements and economic-environmental assessment along the overall torrefaction supply chain through the SECTOR Project.” published in Biomass and Bioenergy → doi:10.1016/j.biombioe.2016.03.004

Ndibe C., Maier J., Scheffknecht G. (2015) "Combustion, cofiring and emissions characteristics of torrefied biomass in a drop tube reactor." published in Biomass and Bioenergy → doi:10.1016/j.biombioe.2015.05.010

Collins Ndibe, Simon Grathwohl, Manoj Paneru, Jörg Maier (2015) "Emissions reduction and deposits characteristics during cofiring of high shares of torrefied biomass in a 500kW pulverized coal furnace." published in Fuel (10th ECCRIA Special Issue) → doi: 10.1016/j.fuel.2015.04.017

Meyer Markus,  Chand, T., Priess J.A. (2015) "Comparing bioenergy production sites in the southeastern US regarding ecosystem service supply and demand." published in PLOS One → doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0116336

Fagernäs L., Kuoppala E., Arpiainen V. (2015) "Composition, utilization and economic assessment of torrefaction condensates" published in Energy & Fuels → doi: 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.5b00004

Järvinen T., Agar D. (2014) "Experimentally determined storage and handling properties of fuel pellets made from torrefied whole-tree pine chips, logging residues and beech stem Wood." published in Fuel → doi: 10.1016/j.fuel.2014.03.057

Magnus Rodolfsson, Wolfgang Stelte, Torbjörn A. Lestander (2014) "Process optimization of combined biomass torrefaction and pelletization for fuel pellet production - A parametric study." published in Applied Energy → doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2014.11.041

Lestander T. A., Rudolfsson M., Pommer L., Nordin A. (2014) "NIR provides excellent predictions of properties of biocoal from torrefaction and pyrolysis of biomass." published in Green Chemistry → doi: 10.1039/c3gc42479k

Meyer M. and Priess J.A. (2014) "Indicators of bioenergy-related certification schemes - An analysis of the quality and comprehensiveness for assessing local/regional environmental Impacts." published in Biomass and Bioenergy → doi:10.1016/j.biombioe.2014.03.041

Kajsa Werner, Linda Pommer, Markus Broström (2014) "Thermal decomposition of hemicelluloses." published in Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis → doi:10.1016/j.jaap.2014.08.013

Fredrik Weiland, Martin Nordwaeger, Ingemar Olofsson, Henrik Wiinikka and Anders Nordin (2014) "Entrained flow gasification of torrefied wood residues." published in Fuel Processing Technology → doi:10.1016/j.fuproc.2014.03.026

Martin Svanberg, Ingemar Olofsson, Jonas Flodén, Anders Nordin (2013) "Analysing biomass torrefaction supply chain costs." published in Bioresource Technology → doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2013.05.048

Anders Nordin, Linda Pommer, Martin Nordwaeger, Ingemar Olofsson (2013) "Conversion of biomass through torrefaction." Chapter 7 of book "Technologies for converting biomass to useful energy: Combustion, gasification, pyrolysis, torrefaction and fermentation." → ISBN-10: 0415620880 / → ISBN-13: 978-0415620888

Here you can find the public deliverables of the SECTOR-Project.

no.titledate
1.1Provision of the project website27.06.2012
3.1Working paper on evaluation criteria and selection of feedstock27.06.2012
2.1Profiles of the selected raw materials part 105.09.2012
6.1Description of existing handling and storage facilities and the associated issues09.11.2012
9.1Description of the relevant biomass-to-end-use chains, including torrefied biofuels07.11.2012
8.1Round Robin report 1 - Validation of "standard" test methods08.02.2013
8.2

Requirements for a MSDS for torrefied material

12.02.2013
9.3Deployment scenarios and socio-economic assessment of torrefied biomass chains Part 109.12.2013
2.3Profiles of the selected raw materials-part 210.07.2013
10.1First data sets presented in BIODAT21.05.2013
4.1Report on requirements of end users on densified and torrefied material01.12.2013
1.2Midterm Report after the Midterm Project Conference28.11.2013
7.3/7.4Executive summary of: "Combustion behaviour of torrefied pellets in pellet boilers and corrosion load on chimneys." and "Combustion screening of three pellet boiler technologies and fuel assessment trials."27.01.2014
3.2Report on optimisation opportunities by integrating torrefaction into existing industries 06.02.2014
8.3Graded thermally and densified biomass fuels Development of the ISO 17225-8 standard (updated version)11.08.2014 (Updated 11/2015)
4.3Scientific paper on fundamental densification characteristics of torrefied material13.08.2014
 

→ The full paper has been published in the journal "Applied Energy".

→ Here you can access the pre-print of the article

 
3.3Scientific paper on torrefaction fundamentals (summary)14.08.2014
 → The full paper has been published in the journal "Journal of Analytical and Applied Pyrolisis". 
9.5Deployment  Scenarios and socio-economic assessment of torrefied biomass chains Part 202.02.2015
8.4Round robin report 2 – Validation of new test methods19.02.2015
8.6

“General” material safety data sheet 

(If you wish to have the template of the General material safety data sheet in WORD, please contact info(at)sector-project.eu)

05.03.2015
8.5Report on test methods and properties of torrefied biomass24.06.2015
9.8Executive Summary of WP9 Results13.07.2015
1.3Final report based on Conference Proceedings of Final Project Conference31.07.2015
6.7

Final report on bulk tests in existing storage and handling facilities

05.10.2015
10.3

Proceedings of Workshops

Annex 1 - 1st Workshop

Annex 2 - 2nd Workshop

Annex 3 - 3rd Workshop

12.11.2015
10.2Torrefaction Technology and Strategy Report16.11.2015

Here you can find links to background literature on torrefaction technology and related subjects.

About SECTOR

Boosting Torrefaction as a major renewable energy process

SECTOR (Production of Solid Sustainable Energy Carriers from Biomass by Means of TORrefaction) is a large-scale European project with a strong consortium of 21 partners from industry and science. The project is focused on the further development of torrefaction-based technologies for the production of solid bioenergy carriers up to pilot-plant scale and beyond, and on supporting the market introduction of torrefaction-based bioenergy carriers as a commodity renewable solid fuel.

In parallel to the development of torrefaction and densification technologies the consortium will work on the assessment of selected logistics aspects and the use of torrefied products in existing conversion options as well as fuel specification and testing methods. This is complemented by a full sustainability assessment of torrefaction-based biomass-to-end-use value chains. The partners CENER (Spain), DTI (Denmark), ECN (Netherlands), Topell (Netherlands) and Umeå University (Sweden) provide the knowhow and equipment for the core technologies of torrefaction and densification. Industry partners such as EON (UK), RWE Innogy (Germany) and Vattenfall (Sweden), amongst others, will concentrate on logistics and end use applications. The scientific organisations, like ofi (Austria), TFZ (Germany) and VTT (Finland), bring in their expertise in terms of analysis and testing methodologies as well as standardisation.

In this way, the SECTOR project is expected to shorten the time-to-market of torrefaction technology and to promote market introduction within stringent sustainability boundary conditions. The European Union provides funding for this project within the Seventh Framework Programme. The project started in January 2012 and has a duration of 42 months.

SECTOR Objectives

  • Support the market introduction of torrefaction-based bioenergy carriers as a commodity renewable solid fuel
  • Further development of torrefaction-based technologies (up to pilot-plant scale and beyond)
  • Development of specific production recipes, validated through extensive lab-to-industrial-scale logistics and end-use performance testing
  • Development and standardisation of dedicated analysis and testing methods for assessment of transport, storage, handling logistics and end-use performance
  • Assessment of the role of torrefaction-based solid bioenergy carriers in the bioenergy value chains and their contribution to the development of the bioenergy market in Europe
  • Full sustainability assessment of the major torrefaction-based biomass-to-end-use value chains
  • Dissemination of project results to industry and into international forums (e.g. EIBI, EERA, CEN/ISO, IEA and sustainability round tables)

Overview of the SECTOR project

Project acronymSECTOR
Full titleProduction of Solid Sustainable Energy Carriers from Biomass by Means of TORrefaction
Project re. no.282826

Theme

ENERGY.2011.3.7.-1 (Development of new or impoved sustainable bio-energy carriers)
Start01.01.2012
Duration42 months
Total budget10.29 million Euro
EC funding7.57 million Euro
contract typeCollaborative Project
participants21 from 9 EU-countries

The SECTOR project is funded by the European Union through the 7th Framework Programme.