A technology concept is being presented, that uses all kinds of biomass as feedstock to produce syngas or hydrogen, following a 2-step approach:

1. Conversion of biomass into crude bio-oil.
2. Gasification of bio-oil to produce syngas and hydrogen.

Fast Pyrolysis, originally developed by Lurgi for use within refineries is applied for the first step to convert biomass into an oily slurry which itself can already be used to replace eg. heavy fuel oil. More than 80% of the energy content of the biomass ends up in the bio-oil, the remainder is being used to operate the pyrolysis, making it energy self-sufficient.

In January 2008, a demonstration plant with a capacity of 12 tons per day of biomass started production to prove commercial viability of the technology.

In the second step, the bio-oil is gasified via non-catalytic partial oxidation, which produces raw syngas. Further purification and usual conditioning produces Hydrogen. The technologies involved here are well established in the refinery and petrochemical industry. Lurgi’s gasification technology allows co-gasification together with hydrocarbon feedstocks.

Reason for 2-step approach via bio-oil rather than direct conversion of biomass is the low energy density of biomass. Large biomass volumes would have to be transported to a production site in order to achieve an economic scale, hence creating a logistic challenge.

Therefore, Lurgi’s concept is based on the idea to produce bio-oil in small decentralized plants which are located close to the supply of biomass. The oil can then be easily transported to bigger gasification plants.