NEWSApril 2017

The European project RE-DIRECT (RegionalDevelopment and Integration of unusedbiomass wastes as Resources for Circular pro-ducts and economic Transformation) funded bythe Interreg INTERREG North-West Europe (NWE)Programme started in September 2016. In Janu-ary 2017 the kick-off meeting took place in Bonnwhere the partnership consisting of expertsfrom different fields (researchers and practitio-ners) met to plan the first steps for the projectimplementation.RE-DIRECT is a holistic approach to promote theefficient use of natural resources and materialsby converting residual biomass into carbon pro-ducts and activated carbon at smart regional de-centralised units. The project involves eleven

partners from Belgium, Germany, France, Ire-land and the United Kingdom who will imple-ment the approach in five urban, semi-urbanand rural NWE regions. Each year at least 34 mil-lion t of residual biomass from the managementof rural landscapes and urban greens in NWEare wasted. On the other hand, there is a gro-wing market for sustainable and decentralisedproducts such as active coal, used in sewage wa-ter technologies to clean water polluted withcomplex chemical substances or antibiotics.RE-DIRECT will make use of the proven technolo-gy named “Integrated Generation of Solid Fueland Biogas from Biomass (IFBB)” to convert20.000t of unused biomass in a circular economyapproach into region-specific carbon products,

RE-DIRECT

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among them activatedcarbon. To reach thisaim, the IFBB concepthas to be amended bya novel pyrolysis andactivation unit. Thiswill be achieved in theproject lifetime bycommunities of regio-nal and interregionalstakeholders (biomasswaste producers, in-dustries, SMEs, NGOs,researchers and otherinterest groups) whoexplore, develop andmanage region-specificproduct portfolios andcreate economic valuechains in the frame-work of transferrable“integrated biomassconcepts”. The projectwill develop one large-scale investment for abiochar and activatedcarbon production at aurban biomass conver-sion centre in Germa-ny and one smallerconversion plant onfarm-scale in Wales.

Lille Seminar

The Seminar for ap-proved projects held inLille (France) on De-cember 8th and 9th,2016, was the first op-portunity for all projectpartners and the JointSecretariat to meet inperson. This opportu-nity was used byalmost all project part-ners. 81 persons fromall approved projects

joint the seminar,among them ten RE-DIRECT participants.The Joint Secretariat(JS) congratulated allapproved projects andhanded over the si-gned subsidy contract.Frank Hensgen fromthe Lead Partner (Uni-versity of Kassel inGermany) received the

contract for the RE-DIRECT project.The seminar providedimportant informationon administration andcommunication rela-ted matters in the pro-jects financed by theINTERREG NWE Pro-gramme.

First experimentsin Kassel

In November 2016, thefirst experiments forRE-DIRECT were con-ducted on the techni-cal optimisation of theIFBB technology foruse in the RE-DIRECTcontext. While in theprevious projects PRO-

GRASS, COMBINE andDANUBENERGY a solidfuel was the end pro-duct of the technology,now in RE-DIRECT theend product is activa-ted carbon - a productwith a much highereconomic value. Thus,the University of Kas-sel aims to increasethe effectiveness ofthe IFBB system toproduce a press cakewith a better chemicalquality to produce ahigh quality activatedcarbon. To this end, allprocess steps of theIFBB (biomass clea-ning, hydrothermalconditioning and me-chanical dehydration)

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Frank Hensgen in Lille

IFBB - Integrated Generation of Solid Fuel andBiogas from Biomass- extended with pyroly-sis and activation unit

are in the focus of op-timisation measures.The first pre-tests in-vestigated the use ofan additional cold wa-ter cleaning step andthe effect of a prolon-ged contact time be-tween material andwater in the hydro-thermal conditioning.First results indicatethat both measureslead to an increasedquality of the presscake.Two Bachelor studentsexpressed their inte-rest to choose the In-tegrated Generation ofSolid Fuel and Biogasfrom Biomass (IFBB)Technique as their to-pic for the Bachelor-Thesis.

Visit to PYREG

The highlight of thekick-off meeting wasthe visit to PYREG inDörth, Germany.PYREG is a Germanmanufacturer of smalldecentralised dry car-bonisation units and is

one of the potentialmanufacturers for theinvestments duringthe project.The existing PYREGplant, the PYREG 500,can convert approx.1400 t of biomass peryear into 300 t of bio-char. In addition, it de-livers 150 kW ofthermal energy.The technique used isa continuous processof dry carbonisation.The biomass is heatedup to 550-600°C in alow oxygen surroun-ding and gasified. Thegases are burned in aFLOX (flameless oxida-tion) combustionchamber, without theformation of tars andcondensates. An inten-sive discussion aboutthe possibility to inclu-de an activation stepinto the existingPYREG 500 plant fol-lowed. The result wasthat the PYREG com-pany will very likely beable to include an acti-vation step into their

plant design. Contactdetails were exchan-ged so that the projectpartners responsiblefor the investmentscould stay in contactwith PYREG. Futurecollaboration duringthe project is envisa-ged in form of invest-ment plans and jointresearch activities.All project participantswere impressed by thepresentation about thePYREG technology toconvert biomass tocharcoal.

Biomass portfolios

The project partnersstarted their investiga-tions of regionallyavailable biomass andrelevant stakeholders.The result will be re-gional biomass portfo-lios that includetechnical, economicaland legal aspects forall biomass types.Important and rele-vant stakeholders in

the fields of residualbiomass handling,transport and storage,water treatment, ad-ministration and poli-tics will be identified,contacted and infor-med.

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Collection of biomass

Excursion to PYREG

Contact

University of Kassel

Faculty of Organic Agri-

cultural Sciences

Department of Grassland

Science and Renewable

Plant Ressources

Dr. Frank Hensgen

Steinstr. 19

D-37213 Witzenhausen

phone:

+ 49 5542 98 1245

email:

hensgen@uni-kassel.de