The days 4th and 5th February took place the General Assembly Meeting of Heat-to-Fuel Consortium, hosted by CEA in Grenoble, France.
At this point in time (month 18 of the project execution), the partners have a clear view of the developments and risks posed by the objectives of Heat-to-Fuel, which means that face-to-face discussions are much appreciated for the advancement of the work.
Each work package leader presented the work carried out and the plan for the next 6 months. Also, several technical groups had working discussion sessions.
The FT experimental bench is part of a large experimental platform where CEA is studying several processes such as methanation, methanol production, hydrocarbons production. CEA can perform tests at different scales, up to 15Nm3/h of reactive gases, under a large range of operating conditions (pressure up to 70bar, inlet gases temperature up to 350°C). Each bench is equipped with gas lines providing CO, CO2, H2, CH4, Ar, so a wide range of inlet gases composition is possible. The reactant products of each process are analyzed through micro chromatograph or Gas chromatography–mass spectrometry analyses. Tests are performed to evaluate the performances of a catalyst, to optimize a process, to asses a reactor type, to observe the possible long-term deactivation of a catalyst, among others.
Several equipment related to biomass thermochemical conversion were also visited: the GENEPI platform with its 150 kg/h torrefaction furnace and 50 kg/h entrained flow reactor for biomass and waste gasification (1400°C, 30 bars) – the high temperature bubbling fluidized bed (1000°C, 15 bars) which will be used in the Heat to Fuel project to investigate the gasification and possible agglomeration of biomass and blends – the hydrothermal experimental platform (batch autoclaves, continuous HTL and supercritical gasification facilities).