Pyrolysis Processes

A wide variety of materials are being used in pyrolysis processes, and experts believe this is a technology that will continue to experience more and more innovations and growth. Pyrolysis, which uses high heat to convert one product into another, utilizes low-value materials such as agricultural waste, forestry byproducts, and burned trees to produce bio-oil, syngas, char, and wood alcohol. Power production is the main application but agricultural uses and chemical production are growing in importance.

The interest in pyrolysis processes is evident from the more than 1,000 projects of various sizes that have been reported in the last 15 years, according to says Lorenz Bauer, a renowned expert in pyrolysis and one of the 100 experts affiliated with Lee Enterprises Consulting. Although some of those projects are no longer active, many are still operating. “Interest in new plants and technologies continues,” Bauer says, and many companies, municipalities, and organizations are exploring using pyrolysis to convert an ever-broadening number of products into useful fuel and materials.The question of making pyrolysis technologies and projects profitable and sustainable continues to be an open one. There are many variables. Production costs depend on local availability of the products to undergo the process and the cost of them. This, Bauer says, can make smaller-scale mobile units especially attractive. But under the right conditions, biomass pyrolysis can boost the economies of rural areas. Moreover, increasing restrictions on landfill policies in urban areas can tip the economic scales in favor of biomass pyrolysis. Still, the greatest source of interest in the technology relates to reducing the use of fossil fuels, Bauer says.

Large renewable energy and biochemical consulting firms like Lee Enterprises Consulting normally offer a wide range of services in biofuels, biochemicals, biotechnologies, biomaterials, synthetic biology commercialization, feedstocks, and hemp/cannabis.  These companies should have business and financial services like due diligence, feedstock availability, grants and loans and bio market research.  The company also offers technical and engineering related services like techno economic analysis, environmental evaluations, feasibility studies, risk analysis and expert witness engagements.   They might also have strategic partnerships in place to assist clients with insurance, legal, accounting, plant fabrication, feedstock procurement.  

With over 150 experts worldwide, Lee Enterprises Consulting has experts in many specific clean and renewable areas, including anaerobic digestion, fermentation, biomass, conversion technologies for things like tires and railroad ties, organic synthesis, fuel additives, ethanol gas, biodiesel fuel including algae biofuels, solid state and industrial fermentation, green energy grants, ag biotech, agricultural waste, alcohol fuels, alternative proteins and animal-free products, sustainable foods, beverage fermentation, biocatalysis, biodiesel conversion, biogas production, biomass power, carbon intensity, co2 utilization, combined heat & power, Fischer-Tropsch technology, food waste, hydrothermal carbonization, industrial enzymes, landfill management, microbial fermentation, organic synthesis, plastic pyrolysis, plastic recycling, plastic waste, pyrolysis oil, reactor design, renewable identification number, the Renewable Fuel Standard (rfs2), solid recovered fuels, torrefaction and torrefied biomass, waste to energy, and waste-to-hydrogen.   This is a multidisciplinary group of green energy consultants that is a virtual “one stop shop” for any client need and handles projects of all types and sizes.

Look at our experts and the services we provide.  Most of our experts are also available to advise and serve as expert witnesses in bioeconomy litigation matters.  For the larger projects, we specialize in putting together full service, interdisciplinary teams with one point of contact.  See video about LEC here.  Call us at 1+ (501) 833-8511 or email us for more information.  See also: Pyrolysis Reactor Design, and Pyrolysis Technology & Tire Processing,