SFC is a Centre of Excellence and one of the largest investment in competence development in the field of gasification of biomass and wastes in the world. SFC is created to coordinate and support established Swedish research in field. Our Centre is an important national actor for developing new knowledge needed to reduce the country’s dependence on fossil fuels and for reducing our net emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. The research program, which started in the year 2011, is a 10-year program with a total budget of 540 million SEK (approx. 54 million Euros) and where one third of the funding comes from The Swedish Energy Agency, one third from industrial partners and one third from academia.
The Swedish Gasification Centre - A Centre of Excellence
The overall long-term targets are to:
Strengthen and coordinate Swedish R&D in the area of thermal gasification of biomass and wastes
Carry out fundamental and applied R&D to support the development of thermal gasification of biomass and wastes
Increase the gasification competence at Swedish universities and industries to facilitate the commercialization of gasification technologies
Transportation fuels
Chemicals
Process heat
Electricity
Gasification - A cost-efficient and environmentally friendly technology
Gasification is one of the most cost-efficient technologies for conversion of solid or liquid feedstocks. The majority of the future carbon-based products will be produced by gasification of renewable feedstocks. Therefore, gasification is of strategic importance for Sweden and its industry as it is a key process for efficiently converting forest biomass and renewable wastes into transportation fuels, chemicals, process heat and electricity. This conversion process constitutes a great potential for development and renewal of the Swedish industrial sector and could significantly contribute to the Swedish vision of a fossil free society in 2045. Gasification is characterized by:
1.
High product flexibility
A wide range of transportation fuels such as methane, methanol, dimethyl ether (DME), synthetic diesel, jet fuels etc. can be produced. Additionally, the technology can be used for plastic waste recycling. Of the product gas can also be used to generate electric power alone or in co-generation with heat or to generate heat in industrial kilns and furnaces.
2.
Large feedstock flexibility
Any feedstock that can be combusted can also be gasified. SFC focus mainly on forest biomass and waste, like plastics.
3.
Good economic performance
The economic performance of a plant depends on many factors like feedstock, plant scale, final product etc. More to be added
4.
High carbon dioxide reduction potential
The Renewable Energy Directive recognizes gasification technologies as having the highest default values for GHG savings (i.e. generalized values to be used to verify GHG reduction, unless not providing a detailed estimate for the case) of all biofuel pathways.
6.
Integration opportunities in existing industrial infrastructures
To be added
1.
High product flexibility
A wide range of transportation fuels such as methane, methanol, dimethyl ether (DME), synthetic diesel, jet fuels etc. can be produced. Additionally, the technology can be used for plastic waste recycling. The product gas can also be used for co-generation of heat and electricity as well as for process heat production for use in industrial kilns and furnaces.
4.
High carbon dioxide reduction potential
The Renewable Energy Directive recognizes gasification technologies as having the highest default values for greenhouse gas emissions savings (i.e. generalized values to be used to verify greenhouse gas reduction, unless not providing a detailed estimate for the case) of all biofuel pathways.
2.
Large feedstock flexibility
Any feedstock that can be combusted can also be gasified. SFC focuses mainly on forest biomass and waste, like plastics.
5.
High energy conversion efficiency
The energy conversion efficiency depends on the final product(s). Upgrading the synthesis gas to transportation fuels or chemicals lead to energy efficiencies in the range of 40-70 % (highest for methane, methanol and DME). Electricity can be produced with an efficiency of up to 45 %.
3.
Good economic performance
The economic performance of a plant depends on many factors like feedstock, plant scale, final product etc. Gasification technologies generally offer high energy efficiency, high product yield, opportunities for utilization of low-cost feedstocks, large production capacities (i.e. economy-of-scale) and industrial integration. All these factors lead to improved economic performance.
6.
High technological maturity
Biomass gasification is a mature technology with high Technology Readiness Level (TRL) and is currently applied in a very wide capacity range (a few kW to several hundreds of MW). Many biomass and waste gasification pathways are already commercialized or well demonstrated in industrial scale and close to being commercialized. This means that under beneficial economic and other boundary conditions, renewable gasification systems can be implemented already today.
