oil/residues) is dominated by the ammonia industry. Also the H 2 in oil refineries represent a significant share in present syngas applications.

ECN-RX--05-181 Biosyngas key-intermediate in production of renewable transportation fuels, chemicals, and electricity: optimum scale and economic prospects of Fischer- Tropsch plants Harold Boerrigter Bram van der Drift Published at 14th European Biomass Conference & Exhibition, Paris, France, 17-21 October 2005

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BIOSYNGAS KEY-INTERMEDIATE IN PRODUCTION OF RENEWABLE TRANSPORTATION FUELS, CHEMICALS, AND ELECTRICTY: OPTIMUM SCALE AND ECONOMIC PROSPECTS OF FISCHER-TROPSCH PLANTS Harold Boerrigter, * Bram van der Drift Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN), Unit ECN Biomass P.O. Box 1, 1755 ZG Petten, the Netherlands T: +31-224-564591; F: +31-224-568487; E: boerrigter@ecn.nl; W: www.ecn.nl/biomass ABSTRACT: Biosyngas is the key-intermediate in the production of renewable transportation fuels, chemicals, and electricity. Biosyngas has a large potential market, especially for the production of Fischer-Tropsch transportation fuels (i.e. BTL). Oxygenblown pressurised slagging entrained flow gasification at >1200 C is the optimum gasification technology to produce biosyngas. Pre-treatment is required to allow feeding of biomass into the gasifier and stable operation. The two most suitable pre-treatment options are torrefaction and bio-slurry production. Gas conditioning and gas treatment is preformed with proven and commercially available technologies. Large BTL production capacities are required to meet the targeted EU-25 substitution percentages. Considering BTL implementation within the projected timeframe, large-scale plants are preferred. Large-scale plants are also preferred in those EU countries that depend on biomass import. The economy of BTL plants is very dependent on the production scale and largescale facilities are required to benefit from the economy of scale. Upon increasing plant sizes, the decrease in investments costs is much more significant than the increase in transport costs. Large-scale plants in the gigawatt range yield the lowest fuel production costs. In large BTL plants the FT fuel production costs are approximately 15 /GJ or 55 ct/l. This means that at the current oil price of ~60 $/bbl the biomass-based Fischer- Tropsch fuels are competitive. Keywords: Biosyngas, Fischer-Tropsch, entrained flow gasification, transportation fuels, pre-treatment. 1 INTRODUCTION Biomass is heading for a great future as renewable energy source. It not only is available in large quantities, it also is the only renewable energy source that is suitable for the sustainable production of (generally carbon containing) transportation fuels and chemicals. A promising option to do so is to convert biomass into a biosyngas by gasification and subsequently synthesize the required products. 1.1 Global syngas market Today, in total about 6,000 PJ/year of syngas is produced worldwide, corresponding to almost 2% of the present total worldwide energy consumption (Figure 1). The world market for syngas (mainly from fossil energy sources like coal, natural gas and oil/residues) is dominated by the ammonia industry. Also the H 2 in oil refineries represent a significant share in present syngas applications. 11% 23% 4% 8% present syngas market: world total: 6000 PJ/y (~2% of total energy consumption) 53% ammonia refineries (H2) methanol electricity gas-to-liquids other Figure 1: Present world syngas market Within the EU bio-fuel directive, 5.75% of fossil fuels have to be substituted by bio-fuels and this share will increase to 8% by 2020. In various outlooks for 2040, e.g. of the Dutch government, even more ambitious substitution percentages of 25-40% are projected for fuels and chemicals. It is expected that these highquality products will be produced via ECN-RX--05-181 3

biosyngas as key-intermediate. Resultantly, new markets for biosyngas will come forward for these applications. Assuming 30% as an average biomass substitution value, and translating this to world scale, the total syngas market will increase to approximately 50,000 PJ/year (Figure 2). 39% 6% 3% 49% ammonia refineries (H2) methanol electricity gas-to-liquids other Figure 2: Predicted world syngas market in 2040 1.2 Biosyngas versus product gas estimated future (2040) syngas market world total: 50 000 PJ/y (~10% of total energy consumption) biomass-to-liquids biomass-to-chemicals High biomass-to-syngas efficiencies are required for cost effective production of biosyngas. This implies that upon gasification of biomass the maximum share of energy contained in the biomass should be converted into the syngas components H 2 and CO, i.e. upon biomass gasification a biosyngas instead of a product gas must be produced [1]. In product gas from low temperature gasification the syngas components H 2 and CO typically contain only ~50% of the energy in the gas, while the remainder is contained in CH 4 and higher (aromatic) hydrocarbons. Upon high temperature (>1200 C) gasification all the biomass is completely converted into biosyngas. Biosyngas is chemically similar to syngas derived from fossil sources and can replace its fossil equivalent in all applications [2]. 2 TECHNOLOGY A schematic line-up of an integrated biomass gasification and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis plant is shown in Figure 3. 2.1 Gasification Several general types of gasification technologies are suitable for biomass gasification, i.e. fixed bed (either downdraft or updraft), fluidised bed, and entrained flow. The main technology selection criteria are: (i) high biomass-to-biosyngas efficiency, (ii) fuel flexibility for all types of biomass, e.g. wood, straw, and grassy materials, (iii) suitability for scales of several hundreds to a few thousand megawatt, and (iv) possibility to operate on coal as back-up fuel [2]. Slagging entrained flow gasification is the only technology that meets all criteria. Pressurised and oxygen-blown entrained flow (EF) gasification, as developed for coal and commercially availably from Future Energy and Uhde/Shell, is typically operated at temperatures of 1200-1600 C. Gasification efficiency is close to 80% with high carbon conversions (99.5%). Biomass however, is different from coal in many respects; the most relevant relates to feeding. Biomass requires significant pre-treatment to allow stable feeding into the gasifier without excessive inert gas consumption [3]. ECN-RX--05-181 4

Biosyngas off-gas Electricity (for use in plant) Biomass light product Fischer-Tropsch Diesel (ultra-pure high-quality designer fuel) Pre-treatment Gasification Gas Conditioning Fischer- Tropsch CC Figure 3: Schematic line-up of integrated BTL plant 2.2 Biomass pre-treatment In addition to the requirement to pre-treat the biomass for feeding, it may also be desired for purpose of densification of the material. Due to the smaller volume transport costs are reduced and the stability of the gasifier operation is increased, due to the higher energy density of the feed. Several pre-treatment can be chosen. The two most promising are (1) torrefaction and (2) flash-pyrolysis to produce a bio-slurry. Torrefaction is a mild thermal treatment in which CO 2 and H 2 O are evaded and the material is made brittle and very easy to mill. The torrefied material can be handled and fed to the gasifier with existing coal infrastructure [4]. Bio-slurry is a mixture of the oil and char produced by pyrolysis. The slurry can be fed as a liquid, which significantly decreasing the inert gas consumption. Both options are suitable for a wide range of biomass materials and have a high energy efficiency of 95 and 90%, respectively [2]. Alternative conventional pre-treatment options are hampered by the relative low energy efficiencies, e.g. char (40-60%) or pyrolysis oil (50-70%) production. 2.3 Biosyngas conditioning The raw syngas from the gasifier needs significant conditioning and treating to be suitable for catalytic synthesis. A typical gas condition lineup comprises gas cooling, water-gas shift, CO 2 removal, and impurities removal (e.g. H 2 S, COS, volatile metals, etc.). Cooling can be achieved with a cooler or water quench. The advantage of a cooler is that the latent heat in the gas can be utilised, however, in the case of biomass firing, there is an increased risk of fouling due to the relative high alkaline and chloride concentrations compared with coal. Alternatively, a water quench can be used to cool the gas. Except for the gas cooling, the conditioning and treating of biosyngas is similar to fossil-based syngas. Biosyngas can be cleaned to meet FT specifications with proven and commercial available technologies. There are no biomass-specific impurities that require a totally different gas cleaning approach [1]. 2.4 Fischer-Tropsch synthesis Today, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis is an established technology and two companies have already commercialised their FT technology, i.e. Shell (first plant in Malaysia) and Sasol (several plants in South Africa). Both companies, as well as other parties, have currently large plants under construction in Qatar. The Shell plant in Malaysia has a production capacity of 14,000 bbb/d (or 28 PJ fuel product), which corresponds to 1,400 MW th syngas capacity. This capacity is equivalent to approximately 1,700 MW th biomass input. The new Shell plants in Qatar have a design capacity of 75,000 bbl/d (equivalent to 10 GW th biomass input). ECN-RX--05-181 5

3 BTL PRODUCTION CAPACITY The market potential for biosyngas and BTL fuels in the EU-25 is set by the substitution percentages defined in the EU bio-fuel directive (as well as an outlook to 2040); see Table I. The potential of Fischer-Tropsch fuels within this market amounts to approximately 230 to 2,000 PJ (2010-2040), assuming a 1:1 fuel mix of gasoline and diesel and a limited contribution from other diesel substitutes (e.g. biodiesel). Table I: Bio-fuel potential in EU-25 Year 2005 2010 2020 2040 Substitution (%) 2.0 5.75 8 30 Energy equiv. (PJ) 247 762 ~1,000~4,000 To meet these targets a large production capacity is required. Table II gives an impression of the number of plants that would be required as function of the average plant scale. There is a strong preference for larger plants, as implementation of several hundreds of BTL plants in Europe is unrealistic, considering the limited availability of suitable locations and the limitations set by legislation and permitting procedures. The targeted biosyngas and BTL production capacity is much easier and faster implemented when a few large plants are realised. Table II: Number of BTL plants to meet targets Year Biomass input 2010 2020 2040 [MW th ] 8 12 66 BTL plants of 1,700 14 21 112 BTL plants of 1,000 70 104 558 BTL plants of 200 280 418 2,232 BTL plants of 50 In addition to the implementation aspects, it should also be considered that most EU-25 have insufficient biomass resources to meet their targets, therefore, large-scale biomass import to the EU will have to be established. This biomass is preferentially converted into biofuels in large facilities close to harbours to avoid further biomass transport to the hinterland and the additional related costs. 4 ECONOMY Since Fischer-Tropsch facilities are relatively high capital intensive, large fuel production capacities are required to benefit from the economy of scale and reduce fuel production costs. However, the transport costs will increase with the BTL plant size in the case of using local biomass, due to the larger transport distances. To determine the optimum scale for BTL production, an economic assessment is made for a BTL plant using local biomass. 4.1 Case description Wood from a production forest is chipped and dried to 7% moisture. These chips (4 /GJ BM ) are transport by truck to a BTL plant that is located in the centre of the production area. On site of the BTL plant, the biomass is pre-treated by torrefaction to produce a material that can be fed to the gasifier and allows stable gasification. In the oxygen-blown entrained flow gasifier the biomass is converted into biosyngas with 80% chemical efficiency. The raw biosyngas is cooled, conditioned, and cleaned from the impurities. The on-specification biosyngas is used for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis to produce C 5 + liquid fuels (cf. Figure 3). 4.2 Investment data Most crucial in the determination of the FT fuel production costs is making a reliable estimate for the investment costs of the integrated BTL plant. Reference is made to costs for gas-to-liquids plants, however, in literature limited (recent) information is available. In Figure 4 investment data is shown for a GTL plant in the range of 20 to 100,000 bbl/d (blue circles). Furthermore, derived data for the Sasol under construction GLT plants in Qatar (with much infrastructure already present) and Nigeria (green field), i.e. green diamond and red triangle. Based on these numbers the scale-dependency curves are drawn using a typical scale-factor of 0.7. The investments costs for a BTL plant were estimated to be in the middle of the range (see Figure 4) also with a scale-factor of 0.7 for the whole capacity range. ECN-RX--05-181 6

Investment costs [1,000 $/bbl/d] 100 80 60 40 20 Literature (report ECN-CX-03-003) BTL plant Sasol Qatar (source: newspaper) Sasol Nigeria (source: newspaper) 0 0 20 40 60 80 Capacity FT C 5+ [1,000 bbl/day] Figure 4: Scale dependency of BTL investment costs. For reference: 1,000 bbdl/d 100 MW th biosyngas 4.3 FT fuel production costs The fuel production costs are composed of the costs for the biomass feed material, transport, pre-treatment, and the conversion (gasification, cleaning, synthesis, and product upgrading). All cost items are expressed in /GJ of FT fuel. In the appendix the main data used for the calculations are summarised. In Figure 5 the cumulative FT fuel production costs are shown for four scales. Production costs [ /GJ_FT-liq] 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Conversion Pre-treatment Transport Biomass 10 100 1,000 10,000 Plant capacity [MW th biomass input] Figure 5: Scale dependency of FT fuel production costs. For reference: 15 /GJ FT 55 ct/l The production costs decrease from 40 /GJ FT for a 10 MW th plant to 15 /GJ FT at a scale of 10,000 MW th. The latter scale is comparable to a conventional oil refinery, as well as to the new GTL plants. At large scale the biomass costs of 7.3 /GJ FT make up half of the fuel costs. At small scale the investments the costs are determining cost item. 100 Transport costs are not significant, independent of the scale, in spite of increasing larger transport distances for the large plant. The results also show that, in the assessed case, no advantage can be taken from decreasing the plant size, as the contribution of the investment costs increase much faster than the transport cost decrease. Operating a smaller BTL plant may be advantages when cheap local biomass is available. In the case that biomass is available at 0.6 /GJ BM, FT fuels can be produced at 15 /GJ FT already in a 150 MW th biomass plant. One can question how many of these locations will exist within a global biomass market. Therefore, based on economic considerations, it is advisable to direct technology development towards large BTL facilities. Additionally, it should be noted that the use of a scale factor of 0.7 for calculating the investment costs, most likely results in an underestimation of the costs for scales below 2,500 MW th. A factor of 0.5 is probably more accurate. With this scale factor the fuel production costs would be significantly higher and sum up to 100, 40, and 20 /GJ FT for plants of 10, 100, and 1,000 MW th biomass input, respectively. The break-even for cheap biomass is then reached at 700 MW th input. 5 CONCLUSIONS Biosyngas will be the key-intermediate in the production of renewable transportation fuels, chemicals, and electricity. Within the envisioned substitution of fossil fuels by biomass, large potential markets are created for biosyngas. The main new application will be the production of Fischer-Tropsch transportation fuels (i.e. BTL). The optimum gasification technology to produce syngas from biomass is oxygen-blown pressurised slagging entrained flow gasification operated at high temperatures (>1200 C). Gasification processes that operate at lower temperatures (<1000 C) yield a product gas, which is less suitable for liquid fuel synthesis. The EF gasifier is heart of the Fischer- Tropsch BTL plant. To allow feeding into the gasifier and stable operation the biomass needs to be pre-treated. The two most suitable options are torrefaction and bio-slurry ECN-RX--05-181 7

production, with a small preference for torrefaction because of the higher efficiency. Gas conditioning and gas treatment is preformed with proven and commercially available technologies, as biosyngas contains no biomass-specific impurities that would require a different approach. Large biosyngas and BTL production capacities are required to meet the targeted EU-25 substitution percentages. Considering all aspects related to implementation of BTL within the projected timeframe, large-scale plants are preferred. Large-scale plants are also preferred in those EU countries that have to depend on biomass import to meet their targets (e.g. the Netherlands). The economy of BTL plants is very dependent of the production scale as these plants are very capital intensive. Large-scale facilities are required to benefit from the economy of scale. Assessment of the case of a BTL plant using local biomass showed that upon increasing plant size, the decrease in investments costs is much more significant than the increase in transport costs. Large-scale plants of a few gigawatt yield the lowest fuel production costs. In these cases the biomass costs make up almost 50% of the fuel cost. In large BTL plants the FT fuel production costs are approximately 15 /GJ or 55 ct/l. This means that at the current oil price of ~60 $/bbl the biomass-based Fischer-Tropsch fuels are competitive. years (linear); required IRR 12%; O&M costs 7%; scale factor 0.7 (whole range); availability 8,000 h/y; gasification efficiency (biomass to biosyngas) 80%; conversion efficiency (biosyngas to FT C 5 + liquids) 71%. 7 REFERENCES [1] Boerrigter, H.; Calis, H.P.; Slort, D.J.; Bodenstaff, H.; Kaandorp, A.J.; Uil, H. den; Rabou, L.P.L.M., Gas cleaning for integrated Biomass Gasification (BG) and Fischer-Tropsch (FT) systems, ECN report C--04-056, November 2004, 59 pp. [2] Boerrigter, H.; Drift, A. van der, Biosyngas: Description of R&D trajectory necessary to reach large-scale implementation of renewable syngas from biomass, ECN report C--04-112, December 2004, 29 pp. [3] Drift, A. van der; Boerrigter, H.; Coda, B.; Cieplik, M.K.; Hemmes, K., Entrained flow gasification of biomass; Ash behaviour, feeding issues, system analyses, ECN report C--04-039, April 2004, 58 pp. [4] Bergman, P.C.A.; Boersma, A.R.; Kiel, J.H.A., Torrefaction for entrained flow gasification of biomass, ECN report C--05-067, July 2005, 51 pp. 6 APPENDIX ECONOMIC DATA In the case for the economic assessment the following input data was used: forest with 20% exploitable area; biomass yield 10 ton ds /ha/y; local biomass; wood chips with 7% moisture; biomass costs 4 /GJ bm ; transport to BLT plant by truck, variable transport costs 0.08 /ton/km; pre-treatment by torrefaction; pre-treatment efficiency 95%; pre-treatment costs 1.5 /GJ ptt of pre-treated material; deprecation 10 ECN-RX--05-181 8

Biosyngas H. Boerrigter, A. van der Drift Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN), ECN Biomass (1) ECN Biomass, Harold Boerrigter 14 th Biomass Conference, Paris, 17 October 2005 www.ecn.nl Content Definition of biosyngas Markets & Applications Technology Scale of BTL plants Economy Conclusions (2) ECN Biomass, Harold Boerrigter 14 th Biomass Conference, Paris, 17 October 2005 www.ecn.nl Definition of biosyngas Biosyngas versus Product gas BIOMASS low temperature gasification (700-1000 C) Product gas CO, H2, CH4, CxHy (fuel gas) (brenngas) high temperature gasification (1200-1600 C) Biosyngas CO, H2 FT diesel Methanol / DME Ammonia Hydrogen Chemical industry Electricity SNG Electricity Conversion of product gas into biosyngas by: 1. Reforming (catalytic) 2. Tar cracking (thermal) (3) ECN Biomass, Harold Boerrigter 14 th Biomass Conference, Paris, 17 October 2005 www.ecn.nl ECN-RX--05-181 9

Biosyngas potential (1) Present global syngas market 4% 8% world total: 6,000 PJ/y (~2% of total energy consumption) 11% 23% 53% ammonia refineries (H 2 ) methanol electricity gas-to-liquids other 500 PJ/y for GTL (Sasol, Shell) Directives and legislation for substitution of fossil fuels by biomass Transportation fuels and chemicals = 30% of world primary energy consumption (4) ECN Biomass, Harold Boerrigter 14 th Biomass Conference, Paris, 17 October 2005 www.ecn.nl Biosyngas potential (2) Projected 2040 market Assuming future 30% substitution of fossil fuels by biomass by 2040 Biomass-based liquids and chemicals primarily via biosyngas 6% 3% world total: 50,000 PJ/y (~10% of total energy consumption) 39% 49% ammonia refineries (H 2 ) methanol electricity gas-to-liquids other biomass-to-liquids biomass-to-chemicals Assumption: volume other markets unchanged (5) ECN Biomass, Harold Boerrigter 14 th Biomass Conference, Paris, 17 October 2005 www.ecn.nl Entrained flow gasifier Text text Slagging gasifiers Characteristics: Temperature: 1200-1600 C Syngas Pressure: 20-40 bar Oxygen Slagging Conversion: >99% Efficiency (LHV): 80% Fuel flexible Small feed particles / liquid Future Energy Uhde/Shell (6) ECN Biomass, Harold Boerrigter 14 th Biomass Conference, Paris, 17 October 2005 www.ecn.nl ECN-RX--05-181 10

Biomass to Liquids System line-up of integrated BTL plant Biosyngas off-gas Electricity (for use in plant) Biomass light product Fischer-Tropsch Diesel (ultra-pure high quality designer fuel) Pre-treatment Gasification Gas conditioning Fischer-Tropsch synthesis CC (7) ECN Biomass, Harold Boerrigter 14 th Biomass Conference, Paris, 17 October 2005 www.ecn.nl Biomass pre-treatment Motivation & options Pre-treatment of biomass is desired / required to: allow stable feeding into the gasifier with minimum inert gas consumption allow stable operation of the gasifier (i.e. increase energy density) reduce transport cost due to volume reduction like coal (100 µm) particles char - poor efficiency, does not work - too low efficiency: 40-60% conventional torrefaction - high efficiency (95%), product like coal Biomass feeding dedicated liquid bio-oil bio-slurry low-t gasifier 1 mm particles - too low efficiency: 50% (straw), 70% (wood) - high efficiency (90%), liquid feeding - potential high efficiency, stability risk - potential high efficiency, does not exist (8) ECN Biomass, Harold Boerrigter 14 th Biomass Conference, Paris, 17 October 2005 www.ecn.nl Syngas conditioning Example cooling, condition, and treating line-up raw syngas Cooler / water quench Hydrolysis COS + HCN H2/CO shift (ratio 1.7-2.0) Water washer CO2 removal Removal H 2S Guard beds clean syngas dust, soot, ash, volatile metals CO2 conversion COS H2S HCN NH3 NH3, halides absorption of H2S or conversion H2S to elementary sulphur catalyst protection Syngas from biomass gasification ( biosyngas ) can be cleaned to meet FT specifications with proven and commercial available technologies There are no biomass-specific impurities that require a totally different gas cleaning approach. (9) ECN Biomass, Harold Boerrigter 14 th Biomass Conference, Paris, 17 October 2005 www.ecn.nl ECN-RX--05-181 11

Fischer-Tropsch synthesis Example: Shell SMDS plant Reference: Demonstration plant Bintulu, Malaysia Capacity: - 14,000 bbl/d - 28 PJ fuel product - 1,400 MW th syngas Equivalent to: - 1,700 MW th biomass Full-scale SMDS (Qatar): - 75,000 bbl/d fuel - ~10,000 MW th biomass (10) ECN Biomass, Harold Boerrigter 17 14 th Biomass Conference, Paris, 14 17 October 2005 www.ecn.nl Fischer-Tropsch potential in EU-25 Within EU Bio-fuel Directives Year 2005 2010 2020 2040 Substitution [%] 2.0 5.75 8 30 Energy equivalent [PJ] 247 762 ~1,000 ~4,000 Potential for second generation synthetic FT diesel from biomass: Assume a 1:1 fuel mix of gasoline and diesel Biodiesel (RME) and others fixed to 150 PJ Potential of Fischer-Tropsch diesel = 230 to ~2,000 PJ Or 8 Malaysia plants in 2010 and 66 plants in 2040 (11) ECN Biomass, Harold Boerrigter 14 th Biomass Conference, Paris, 17 October 2005 www.ecn.nl Required bio-fuel production capacity Motivation for large-scale plants Large number of small plants required to meet targets Not sufficient locations Legislation & permitting Objectives are easier and faster fulfilled with few large plants In many countries biomass import required Most biomass is available on a few locations (i.e. harbours) Integration in existing chemical infrastructures 2010 2020 2040 Biomass input 8 12 66 BTL plants of 1,700 MW th 14 21 112 BTL plants of 1,000 MW th 70 104 558 BTL plants of 200 MW th 280 418 2,232 BTL plants of 50 MW th Installed capacity [MW] Developments via large-scale plants small-scale initiatives 2000 2030 2010 2020 2040 Time (12) ECN Biomass, Harold Boerrigter 14 th Biomass Conference, Paris, 17 October 2005 www.ecn.nl ECN-RX--05-181 12

Economy of BTL fuel production Optimum scale? Most important criterion to determine optimum scale is economy of fuel production (i.e. final costs ct/l). Case assessment to determine the optimum scale for Fischer-Tropsch biofuel production from local biomass. Back-of-the-envelope approach. Parameters are: biomass price, biomass transport, conversion efficiencies, and pre-treatment and investments costs. Cumulative FT-fuel production costs (in /GJ) are calculated as function of the production capacity (i.e. scale). (13) ECN Biomass, Harold Boerrigter 14 th Biomass Conference, Paris, 17 October 2005 www.ecn.nl Economy of BTL fuel production Case assessment BTL plant located in middle of circular forest Forest: 20% is exploitable with yield 10 ton ds /ha/y Woody biomass is chipped & dried (7%) in forest Biomass costs (dried chips): 4 /GJ Transport by trucks to BLT plant: for 0.08 /ton/km Pre-treatment at BTL plant to allow feeding and stable gasification Pre-treatment by torrefaction: 1.5 /GJ ptt_bm Radius forest area BTL plant Average radius Average transport distance (14) ECN Biomass, Harold Boerrigter 14 th Biomass Conference, Paris, 17 October 2005 www.ecn.nl Investment costs References and scale-up factor for BTL plant Investment costs [1,000 $/bbl/d] 100 80 60 40 20 Literature (report ECN-CX-03-003) BTL plant Sasol Qatar (source: newspaper) Sasol Qatar (source: newspaper) Sasol Nigeria (source: newspaper) Sasol Nigeria (source: newspaper) Fixed scale-up factor of 0.7 For whole range Possible under-estimation of investment costs for scale <20,000 bbl/day or 2,500 MW th 0 0 20 40 60 80 100 Capacity FT C 5+ [1,000 bbl/day] For reference: 1,000 bbl/day 100 MW th biosyngas 130 MW th biomass (15) ECN Biomass, Harold Boerrigter 14 th Biomass Conference, Paris, 17 October 2005 www.ecn.nl ECN-RX--05-181 13

Total FT fuel production costs Scale dependency Production costs [ /GJ_FT-liq] 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 For reference: 15 /GJ = 55 ct/l Conversion Pre-treatment Transport Biomass 10 100 1,000 10,000 Plant capacity [MW th biomass input] Scale factor = 0.5 for scale < 2,500 MW th, results in: - 100 /GJ FT at 10 MW th - 40 /GJ FT at 100 MW th - 20 /GJ FT at 1,000 MW th Biomass costs = 4 /GJ_ar Pre-treatment costs = 1.5 /GJ_ptt_bm Local biomass (truck transport) Variable transport costs: 0.08 /ton/km Deprecation = 10 years (linear) Required IRR = 12% O&M costs: 7% Scale factor = 0.7 (whole range) Availability = 8,000 h/y Pre-treatment efficiency (torrefaction) = 97% Gasification efficiency (biomass to biosyngas) = 80% Conversion efficiency (biosyngas to FT C 5 + liquids) = 71% (16) ECN Biomass, Harold Boerrigter 14 th Biomass Conference, Paris, 17 October 2005 www.ecn.nl Conclusions Biosyngas is the key-intermediate in the production of renewable transportation fuels, e.g. Fischer-Tropsch fuels. Product gas is not suitable. The heart of a Fischer-Tropsch BTL plant is a slagging entrained flow gasifier. Gas conditioning is proven and available technology. Pre-treatment is required, mainly for feeding. Two most suitable options are (1) torrefaction and (2) bio-slurry production. Large-scale plants are required to allow: (1) thriving implementation and (2) cost effective fuel production. Investment costs are very scale-dependent (economy-of-scale). At large scale BTL fuels are competitive with crude fuels (at current oil price). (17) ECN Biomass, Harold Boerrigter 14 th Biomass Conference, Paris, 17 October 2005 www.ecn.nl Realise this Largest biosyngas production plant in operation Reference: NUON utility company owned Buggenum, the Netherlands Specifics: Coal-fired power station 600 MW th / 250 MW e Biomass co-firing: - up to 34 wt% demonstrated - or ~20% on energy basis ~100 MW th biosyngas (18) ECN Biomass, Harold Boerrigter 14 th Biomass Conference, Paris, 17 October 2005 www.ecn.nl ECN-RX--05-181 14

Thank you for your attention For more information, please contact: Dr. ir. Harold Boerrigter Publications can be found on: phone +31 224 56 4591 www.ecn.nl/biomass fax +31 224 56 8487 email boerrigter@ecn.nl Visit also: Phyllis - internet database for biomass, coal, and residues: www.phyllis.nl Thersites internet model for tar dewpoint calculations: www.thersites.nl (19) ECN Biomass, Harold Boerrigter 14 th Biomass Conference, Paris, 17 October 2005 www.ecn.nl ECN Biomass - Mission Contributing to to the the implementation of of biomass (and waste) in in the the Dutch and global (energy) infrastructure by by means of of short-term, mid-term, and long-term research, technology development, and knowledge dissemination. ECN Biomass is a business unit of the Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) (20) ECN Biomass, Harold Boerrigter 14 th Biomass Conference, Paris, 17 October 2005 www.ecn.nl ECN Biomass Research Clusters Power Generation Slagging, fouling, co-combustion, co-firing, ash-quality Heat and Power Gasification, combustion, gas clean-up, prime-movers Fuels and Products liquid fuels, gaseous energy carriers, biosyngas, bio-refinery, co-generation Implementation time (21) ECN Biomass, Harold Boerrigter 14 th Biomass Conference, Paris, 17 October 2005 www.ecn.nl ECN-RX--05-181 15