EnergyProSafe – Improving energy production and safety in biocarbon value chains

Two previous (BioCarb+ and BioCarbUp) and one ongoing knowledge building project (BioCarbUpgrade) have focused on how to produce biocarbon for the metallurgical industries, to enable these industries to gradually phase out their use of fossil-based reductants and materials. This involves establishing complete value chains, from the renewable biomass resource base to the biocarbon end-use in the metallurgical industries. Many factors in these value chains influence on the physiochemical properties of the produced biocarbon, properties that ideally should be as close as possible to the properties of the fossil-based reductants and materials used today.

This is far from an easy task, as mirroring the fossil qualities that Mother Earth has taken millions of years to create is no simple task – especially when attempting to achieve it through a biomass conversion process to produce biocarbon. In practise, the corresponding reductants and materials produced from the biomass resources will have their unique properties, which also influence in the end upon their safety characteristics through the value chain.

Past and recent experiences with safety issues (fires, dust explosions, air quality) connected to the biocarbon value chain have clearly shown the need for increased focus on the whole range of safety issues that can arise throughout the value chain, from its production to its final end-use in the metallurgical industries. Main safety issues are connected to self-ignition and dust explosion, while biocarbon dust also represents a significant air pollution source and hence health risk.

Now a new knowledge building project; Improving energy production and safety in biocarbon value chains (EnergyProSafe), has started and will run for 4 years (2025-28). The main focus is on the safety and health issues in the biocarbon value chains, and how to abate those through improvements throughout the value chains. As biomass is a valuable renewable resource that should be utilised in a resource efficient manner, focus is also on energy and biomass material utilisation efficiency to enhance the sustainability of the biocarbon value chains. EnergyProSafe is led by SINTEF Energy Research and is 80% financed by the Research Council of Norway and 20% financed by a number of industrial partners.

The overall objective of EnergyProSafe is improving and enhancing energy production and safety in biocarbon value chains.

The sub-objectives are:

• Optimisation of biocarbon production processes to maximise energy output and produce biocarbon with minimised hazardous properties
• Identifying and evaluating safety-related vulnerabilities and risks during biocarbon production, transportation, handling and storage for metal production
• Increasing fundamental knowledge through experimental and simulation studies on the safety-related issues to identify and investigate root causes and influential factors under industrial relevant conditions
• Developing, testing and assessing the effectiveness of measures to predict, detect and prevent safety-related issues throughout the biocarbon value chains considering different conditions and scenarios
• Proposing and developing guidelines and recommendations for assessing and evaluating technical, HSE, economic and environmental consequences and impacts of the main safety issues identified
• Increasing expertise on safe production, logistics and storage throughout the biocarbon value chains from biocarbon production to metal production processes
• Education of highly skilled candidates and training of industrial partners
• Monitoring of activities and state-of-the-art within this area and dissemination of results to the industry partners, and other relevant parties when applicable

The figure below shows the project concept.

Through experimental and theoretical work, the aim is to increase the knowledge on how to avoid and mitigate but also to detect and prevent safety hazards, to minimise negative technical, economic and social consequences and improve the biocarbon value chain with respect to resource utilisation efficiency, value creation, and safety. This will then contribute to increased sustainability for the involved industries and as well a secured resource base and improved market position towards the final goal, a net-zero contribution to global warming.

As our foundation today is built on the availability of metals used in numerous products, we need to ensure that the production of these metals is done in a sustainable manner. We therefore not only need to replace fossil-based reductants and materials in these metallurgical industries, but we need to do that as efficiently and safe as possible – while providing the needed societal and economic value. That means a combined focus on resource utilisation efficiency as well reducing environmental, climate and health impacts.

The EnergyProSafe project will be highly international, through both large international partners and scientific collaborators, and has as well a significant integrated educational activity, through a PhD candidate financed by the project, focussing on improving safe handling and storage safety of biocarbon, and connected graduate students as well.

More information about the EnergyProSafe project, project partners, and results, is available on the project homepage:

Collaborative and Knowledge-building Project

EnergyProSafe

Improving energy production and safety in biocarbon value chains

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