How ecological fuel can be obtained from waste, contributing to energy independence

Oil and gas have now become the nightmare of the European population, which uses them massively for mobility and for the production of electricity, to power homes, factories, hospitals, street lighting, the recharges of our mobile phones, air conditioners and any other area in which we need light and the functioning of an appliance.

Furthermore, the ongoing climate crisis, requires us a radical change based on the gradual abandonment of fossil fuels to arrive at the use of renewable sources and clean energy.

In its new Green Deal, Europe has set itself the goal of becoming carbon neutral in 2050 and reducing climate-changing emissions by 40% within the next ten years.

For a long time, therefore, there has been talk of finding alternative solutions to fossil sources for the production of energy, first a bit out of snobbery, then for environmental issues obvious, and now for a matter of survival and economy.

If on the one hand there has been a recent strong push, albeit with many delays, on renewable energy through the 'wind and solar power, in the field of biofuels, new forms of eco-sustainable fuels that derive from waste are being studied and tested.

Until today we knew the biofuels of agricultural origin, which were produced through the treatment of sugars or from starches which, using the process synthesized, allowed to obtain bioethanol.

There is also a production of biofuel that starts from the treatment of used fats to obtain biodiesel.

To close the circle of green sources used in biorefineries, we can also include waste from wood-related activities which, by producing biomass , can be used for biorefining activities.

A new and very promising trend of biofuels is their production through the use of food waste, the so-called FORSU, which it has undoubted environmental advantages, as it reduces the presence of waste produced daily, does not use agricultural land, has a modest impact on production costs compared to other biofuels and, another important point, has a supply of raw materials that is always available.

But how does the bio-oil production process from food waste take place?

Food waste, what we define as wet, is processed through a process called thermoliquefaction, transforming the mass waste and the water it contains, inbio-oil with a low sulfur content.

In this phase of the production process it is possible to use the bio-oil for maritime navigation, while through a subsequent step of refining it is possible to produce a high performance biofuel.

To talk about numbers and give an example, we can say that from about 100 kg of wet waste (FORSU) you can get about 16 kg . of bio-oil and, considering that around 7 million tons of FORSU are collected in Italy alone, it could be hoped that through greater attention to waste differentiation and a greater diffusion of Waste to Fuel plants, throughout the national territory, we could ideally obtain about one billion liters of bio-oil every year.

With these volumes, which would be equivalent to about 6 million barrels of crude oil per year, it would be like discovering a small field without, however, having to drill wells and without, above all, emitting further CO2 into the environment.

Through the process of thermoliquefaction we can accelerate in a few hours the chemical processes that the planet has completed in millions of years creating fossil deposits , having the opportunity to produce bio-oil without negative environmental impacts.

The first advantage of thermoliquefaction, compared to other waste treatment processes, consists in not having to remove the water, in fact, in all the other processes l The water is evaporated by heating the biomass with obvious energy costs. Here, however, water is used in the reaction itself, exploiting its high-temperature properties.

Furthermore, lower temperatures are used: 250-310 °C instead of the 400-500 °C of pyrolysis and the 800-1000 °C of gasification.

The energy yield of thermoliquefaction, which reaches 80%, is also advantageous.

Automatic translation. We apologize for any inaccuracies. Original article in Italian.