Collaborative Research in Energy with South Africa:Scale-up modelling to answer Pyrolysis Challenge

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The latest announcement from the Carbon Trust on Pyrolysis Challenge highlights the importance of pyrolysis-oil as the potential replacement for transport fuels with low system GHG (green house gases) emissions. The two main barriers are outlined in Pyrolysis Challenge : a) to develop fast pyrolysis process to produce a better quality oil at low cost and large scale; b) upgrading the oil preferably with existing refinery. Without the technology and capacity to provide pyrolysis oils in large quantity and low cost, the investment in developing bio-oil upgrading technology and refinery will not be forthcoming. Therefore the development of fast pyroloysis process suitable for scale-up is the most impending issue. This project will focus on the development of computational models which work as effective tools for process design, optimisation and scale-up for biomass fast pyrolysis systems. UK has the technology base to become the world leader in pyrolysis technology and South Africa has the potential to be a major pyrolysis oil manufacturer in the world. This proposal is to form a constructive collaboration with UK expertise in computational modelling and South Africa experience in chemical process engineering. The UK and SA institutes will act as hubs to integrate this project with on-going national research programmes to enable a much wider participation. The project is expected to have catalytic effects to stimulate more collaborative research and commercial exploitation between UK and South Africa.