Low-emission base material production | Heat transfer media
PYSOLO
The High-Flux Solar Simulator in Cologne-Porz
Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) is a technology in which sunlight is captured by several movable mirrors (heliostats) and concentrated on a solar receiver. The receiver technology selected in the PYSOLO project is a rotary kiln particle receiver in which the solar radiation is concentrated to heat a solid particle heat carrier (PHC). The particle receiver is being further developed and refined as part of the project in order to utilise the heat generated for downstream heat-intensive biomass pyrolysis.
Low-emission value products from biomass and concentrated solar radiation
Duration: 1.7.2023 - 1.6.2027
Maximising the production of bio-oil, biochar and pyrogas and minimising the associated CO2 emissions. The PYSOLO project aims to achieve this by combining pyrolysis, a thermo-chemical conversion of biomass, with concentrated solar energy.
This has both economic and ecological advantages over conventional pyrolysis. The planned system utilises particles as a heat transfer medium, which ensures operational flexibility and eliminates the need to install a heat transfer surface in the pyrolysis reactor. The system is more easily scalable.
In the PYSOLO project, the two most important individual operations of this new solar pyrolysis system are to be developed to Technology Readiness Level 4 (Experimental proof of concept):
The solar particle receiver
The pyrolysis reactor with the associated particle and char separator
Infographic of the solar pyrolysis process in the PYSOLO project
A solar particle receiver and a pyrolysis reactor with associated particle and char separator are combined to produce low-emission valuable products such as bio-oil, biochar or pyrogas.
Credit:
Project PYSOLO
For four years, the two components will be analysed, numerically simulated and built in parallel. DLR is investigating and testing the solar receiver, while two project partners are realising the construction and testing of two pyrolysis reactors:
Investigation of a fluidised bed reactor from CSIC (Spain)
Test of an Auger reactor from RE-CORD (Italy)
Experimental validation of the solar receiver on a laboratory scale can be carried out using a rotary kiln and DLR's High-Flux Solar Simulator at the Cologne site.
The innovative feature of PYSOLO is the unique combination of pyrolysis technology with a high-temperature CSP system and a particle heat carrier (PHC). The major advantage is that the pyrolysis process is not solely dependent on solar radiation thanks to the heat-storing particles, which means that solar bio-oil, electricity, pyrolysis gas or biochar can be produced for a wide range of energy and non-energy applications.
Further information can be found on the project website:
