HOME > ABOUT > PLANT & PROCESS
Steam treatment technology by industrial engineers Valmet turns low-value waste wood materials into a high-value black pellets which possess coal-like fuel characteristics.
Power Wood Energy will use Valmet's BioTrac™ technology to develop and produce black pellets with improved density, mechanical strength, moisture resistance, energy content and grindability so power stations can use them instead of the fossil fuel.
Valmet's BioTrac™ technology pressurizes and autohydrolyzes waste stream wood with 230°C steam before depressurizing its environment instantly to rupture the wood's fibres at cellular level.
During the process, hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin in each cell are separated to retain wood's highest energy value elements. Hemicellulose is partially removed and degraded, cellulose is preserved in original crystalline form within granules and lignin is dispersed throughout them so they bind easily. Pentose sugars are refined into the bio-based chemical furfural.
Valmet’s BioTrac™ plant facilities will be fuelled with native bark chippings and surplus wood to create power, heat and steam for the steam-treatment process.
Harvested dead and diseased timber is washed and dried before exposure to 230°C steam in the BioTrac™ system’s high-pressure reactor chamber.
Hydrolysis forces the release of acetic acid from the organic feedstock, which helps to break down its cell structures and release their sugars and lignin.
The steam treatment process partially degrades and removes hemicellose, retains cellulose and lignin, and reallocates each element within the organic material.
An instant reduction of the pressure ruptures, disintegrates and expels treated biomass from the reactor chamber as granules saturated with lignin.
During the process, an integrated refinery extracts pentose sugars and produces bio-based chemical furfural, while the granular biofuel is prepared for pelletizing.
The granular biofuel is pelletized under high gauge pressure into durable steam-treated black pellets and briquettes with improved energy value.
The company's pellet plants will operate with energy-efficient integrated heat and power systems, and will be fuelled onsite with wood and bark chippings or agricultural waste.
Valmet's BioTrac™ chemical recovery systems minimize energy losses and local plant emissions while maximizing material conversion efficiency. Its continuous steam treatment method relies on high heat steam and pressure changes, avoiding harmful chemical additives and ensuring local operations are environmentally-friendly - to produce black pellets which reduce lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions by more than 90% compared with coal.
Our Wilhelmina steam treatment facility in Malaysia produces steam-treated black pellets from agricultural waste that would otherwise decay or be incinerated.
Empty fruit bunches, coconut husks and oil palm trunks are put through a developed Valmet’s Biotrac™ refinery process in the port city of Kuantan – to assess products for energy density, hydrophobicity, durability, ash content, carbon content and consistency.
After assessment, these pellets are readied as pellet and briquette samples for markets in South East Asia - and then transported to dockside for transfer across the South China Sea.
To know more about Power Wood Energy’s bio-based products, please contact our sales team on +44 (0)1702 662 422 or send an email by visiting our contact page.