Outwitting the Dilemma of Scale

There is hardly any topic in the renewable energy §sector that is as dynamic as the world of biofuels. §Due to growing concerns about CO2 emissions, the §importance of the transport sector in everybody s §life as well as concerns about security of fuel §supply in Europe and the US biofuels are an §interesting field of research.§One of the most fascinating questions particularly §in synthetic biofuels is the debate about §the ideal scale of production plants. On the one §hand, fossil fuel supply is based on large and §centralized facilities, on the other, bioenergy §systems are typically characterized by small and §decentralized technologies. The question is: Which §way to go in biomass-based Fischer-Tropsch fuel §production? §As the author disagrees with common wisdom that §synfuel plants have to be of enormous scale to allow §cost-competitive production, an unconventional and §innovative process design is proposed that combines §small-scale and low-cost fuel production. §Consequently, the production based §on polygeneration and a revival of the §historic normal pressure synthesis could open the §door to decentralized, biomass-based Fischer-Tropsch §synfuel technology. There is hardly any topic in the renewable energy §sector that is as dynamic as the world of biofuels. §Due to growing concerns about CO2 emissions, the §importance of the transport sector in everybody s §life as well as concerns about security of fuel §supply in Europe and the US biofuels are an §interesting field of research.§One of the most fascinating questions particularly §in synthetic biofuels is the debate about §the ideal scale of production plants. On the one §hand, fossil fuel supply is based on large and §centralized facilities, on the other, bioenergy §systems are typically characterized by small and §decentralized technologies. The question is: Which §way to go in biomass-based Fischer-Tropsch fuel §production? §As the author disagrees with common wisdom that §synfuel plants have to be of enormous scale to allow §cost-competitive production, an unconventional and §innovative process design is proposed that combines §small-scale and low-cost fuel production. §Consequently, the production based §on polygeneration and a revival of the §historic normal pressure synthesis could open the §door to decentralized, biomass-based Fischer-Tropsch §synfuel technology.