Thermya releases an innovative biomass torrefaction technology to the market
Thermya, a French engineering company and leader in biomass energy recovery, announced today the release of its TORSPYD technological process for the torrefaction of non-food biomass. TORSPYD, which was designed by Thermya, is the most advanced and developed torrefaction technology currently available, according to the company. It is also, to date, the only industrially proven process in Europe which enables the torrefaction of any type of agricultural or forestry non-food biomass in a continuous process.
The innovative TORSPYD technology process is based on the “solid organics distillation principle.” This patented technology, designed and developed by Thermya, enables the full dehydration and depolymerization of biomass in order to produce an absolutely hydrophobic and homogeneous solid fuel. According to Thermya, it is characterized by the highest energy yield performance of any technology known to date.
Torrefaction by TORSPYD allows for the conversion of all kinds of biomass into BioCoal. This BioCoal, which contains less than one percent moisture, retains 95 percent of the initial biomass energy and more than 90 percent of its initial dry mass. The BioCoal’s net calorific value is around 20,500 kJ/kg; far greater than that of non-torrefied biomass. It can also be mixed with fossil coal and co-fired in thermal power stations without any modification of the facilities. Co-firing BioCoal, as a substitute for coal, eliminates mix-rate limitations, and reduces CO2, SO4 and NOx emissions. In addition, thanks to lower NOx emissions, co-firing BioCoal allows for the achievement of equivalent energy efficiency with reduced fuel consumption.
As a result of its hydrophobic properties, BioCoal cannot incur any biological degradations and can therefore be stored and shipped safely without any risks linked to climate conditions. The TORSPYD torrefaction column is energy self-sufficient: the re-injection of 4 percent of the BioCoal production into the torrefaction system allows for it to complement the process’s operational energy requirements.
“Today, Thermya is the only company in Europe to offer an industrially proven, fully operational biomass torrefaction, continuous process,” explains Jean-Sebastian Hery, technical vice-president and co-founder of Thermya. Thermya signed a first license agreement in 2009 with the Spanish company IDEMA, Group Lantec. Through this agreement, IDEMA will build torrefaction units based on the TORSPYD process. "In summary, the main benefits of our TORSPYD technology are unrivalled performance levels and extremely low operating costs,” says Hervé Chauvin, managing director and co-founder of Thermya. ”TORSPYD is the relevant response to the environmental and economical issues electricity producers and operating coal-fired power stations, are currently facing. It also opens up opportunities for manufacturers of classical wood pellets or forest operators, whose production could gain considerable value from torrefaction. Classical pellets are indeed commonly produced from sawdust or from co-products of the primary wood processing industry, whereas our technology is designed to produce premium quality biomass fuel (totally dry and hydrophobic) directly from forestry residues – hardly used at present. Besides all that, producing premium quality pellets from torrefied wood is less energy-consuming than producing classical wood pellets.”
Thermya
www.thermya.com