Biomass for industrial applications: The role of torrefaction

Abstract

Torrefied biomass has considerable potential as a biomass fuel to replace coal in energy and process heat production. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the potential of torrefied biomass in different industries, both power and non-power generation industries, and considers the impact of such use on the international biomass market. The power generation sector has been so far the leader in testing torrefied biomass use with other industrial demand lagging behind. There are promising technical possibilities for greater torrefied biomass use in a number of other areas such as the steel, non-metallic minerals, as well as the pulp and paper industries. Although a large increase in torrefied biomass consumption by industry is not immediately foreseeable, industrial use by actors outside the energy generation sector could increase demand for torrefied biomass in general and, as a result, stimulate development of global torrefied biomass markets. Results show that the torrefied biomass demand significantly depends on the bioenergy markets. It seems that despite of the challenges, the growth of torrefied biomass demand will have a large progress in coming years.