Upgrading woody biomass to biocoal using a novel microwave induced plasma technology

确实需要使能源生产脱碳，以便各国政府履行减少化石燃料产生的碳排放和实现可再生能源发电目标的义务。使用可持续的木材作为燃料是减少与能源生产相关的二氧化碳排放的一种方法；然而，木材的含水率高，能量密度低，燃烧性能多变，并且在改造现有的共烧发电厂时需要相当大的成本。因此，电力生产商越来越多地将烘烤作为一种将木质生物质升级为生产能量密集和可再生的“生物煤”的方法，但技术发展受到工程问题和经济问题的阻碍。本文的主要目的有两个方面：一是提高和评估利用新型微波诱导等离子体（MIP）技术制备生物煤的技术经济性；并利用系统方法确定MIP技术在生物质能供应链中的最佳位置和规模，从而实现生物煤的优势。

There is a real need to de-carbonise energy production in order that Governments meet their obligations toreduce fossil fuel derived carbon emissions and to meet renewable energy generation targets. Usingsustainable sources of wood as a fuel is one such method of reducing the CO2 emissions associated with energyproduction; however, wood has a high moisture content, low energy density, has variable combustionproperties and there are considerable costs incurred in modifying existing power plants for co-firing.Consequently, power producers are looking increasingly to torrefaction as a method of upgrading woodybiomass to produce energy dense and renewable "biocoal", but technology development has been hamperedby engineering problems and economic issues. The main aim of this proposal is two-fold: to enhance and assessthe techno-economics of using novel microwave induced plasma (MIP) technology to make biocoal; and to usea systems approach to identify the optimum position and scale of the MIP technology within the biomasssupply chain so that the benefits of biocoal can be realised.