DIBANET is a research project funded under the EU's Seventh Framework Programme. This project is being co-ordinated by Carboleaat the University of Limerickand is a response to the Energy 2008 Call - "Significant enhancement of the cooperation between key researchers & industries from the EU & Latin America in the field of biofuels". DIBANET stands for the "Development of Integrated Biomass Approaches NETwork" & the title of the Project is "The Production of Sustainable Diesel Miscible Biofuels from the Residues & Wastes of Europe & Latin America". There are 13 partners in the group, 6 from the EU & 7 from Latin America (LA). The total budget for the project is €3.7m, with €1.4m going to the Carbolea Research Group at UL.
DIBANET will develop technologies to help towards eliminating the need for fossil diesel imports in the EU & LA by advancing the art in the production of ethyl-levulinate from organic wastes and residues. Ethyl levulinate (EL) is a novel diesel miscible biofuel (DMB) produced by esterifying ethanol with levulinic acid.
DIBANET aims to:
Optimise the yields of levulinic acid, from the conversion of biomass.
Improve the energy balance & the total biofuel yields possible from a feedstock by sustainably utilising the residues in pyrolysis processes to produce a bio-oil that will be upgraded to a DMB.
Reduce the energy & chemical costs involved in producing ethyl levulinate from levulinic acid & ethanol.
Select key biomass feedstocks for conversion to levulinic acid, analyse these, & develop rapid analytical methods that can be used in an online process.
Analyse the DMBs produced for their compliance to EN590 requirements &, if non-compliant, suggest means to achieve compliance.
DIBANET will enhance co-operation between the EU & LA in biofuels by:
Developing a tightly-integrated online network of key players in the EU & LA.
Organising public meetings between key stakeholders from both regions.
Training PhD & post-doctoral researchers from the opposite region.
Develop an inter-regional Technology Transfer Business Plan for the most effective exploitation of the DIBANET technologies. This will consider the combined needs of the EU & LA & the potential for trade.
Role of Carbolea Research Group, UL:
Co-ordination of the project.
Reactor design & levulinic acid production.
Feedstock analysis
Develop of on-line NIR analytical tool.
Pretreatment for acid hydrolysis using ionic liquids.
Slow pyrolysis and biochar analysis.
DIBANET Partners
Aston University - Aston University's Bioenergy Research Group (BERG) is a strong player in the field of fast pyrolysis.
CERTH - DIBANET will use the laboratory of Environmental Fuels and Hydrocarbons (LEFH) at the Center for Research and Technology–Hellas (CERTH) in Greece. This laboratory has extensive pyrolysis and catalytic pyrolysis pilot facilities.
FOSS Analytical - The company, based in Denmark, is currently the world’s leading provider of analytical instruments and has been providing analytical solution to the biofuel industry for decades. It is devoted to further improvements and new developments in this area, both for current biofuel production as well as for future production processes.
Geonardo - Geonardo is an energy and environmental technology firm and a technical consulting service specialising in biomass and biofuel resources management. Its core strengths lie in establishing networks between stakeholders (e.g. the "Biofuel Marketplace").
CTC - CTC is Brazil's leading private research and technology organisation and is involved in all areas of sugarcane production and utilisation.
UFRJ - The Nucleus of Catalysis (NUCAT) group of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) is a centre of excellence for the development of basic and applied research in catalysis.
University of Buenos Aires - The Laboratory of Catalytic Process (LPC) at UBA (Argentina) is involved in: kinetics studies; design, modelling and optimization of catalytic reactors; synthesis and catalyst characterization and computational catalysis.
Repsol YPF - Repsol YPF is an international integrated oil and gas company. The Argentinian branch in involved in DIBANET and will analyse the fuels produced and help to commercialise the outputs of the research.
EMBRAPA Soils -Embrapa Soils (EM), located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is involved in the analysis of biochars in close collaboration with UL. EM has vast experience in tropical soils, C sequestration and agricultural use of pyrolysis residues studies, of particular importance for assessing the sustainability of biorefinery feedstock supply cycles in tropical conditions, residues destination and improvement of soil fertility and sustainability.
Fundacion Chile - Fundación Chile is a non-profit institution focussed on research activities that lead to innovations and the development of knowledge in the Chilean economy's key clusters in alliance with local and global knowledge networks.
UNICAMP - The Theoretical and Applied Chemometrics Laboratory in the University of Campinas (Brazil) is involved in DIBANET in the analysis of Latin American biomass feedstocks.
Concept
Europe and Latin America share common needs and threats. The increasing reliance on imported diesel fuels is a problem for both regions. Many of the current feedstocks used for biofuel production have a variety of economic, technical and environmental problems and can not satisfy our diesel needs. Europe and Latin America (LA) are also experiencing annual increases in their quantities of organic wastes. Ideally these would be used to produce diesel fuels but there are technical limitations with waste-to-biofuel technologies in their current art.
DIBANET will develop technologies to help towards eliminating the need for fossil diesel imports in either region, improving the security of energy supply. DIBANET will achieve this by advancing the art in the production of ethyl-levulinatefrom organic wastes and residues.
The DIBANET Scientific Objectives will bring substantial cost reductions that can help pave the way for large scale biofuel production by 2020, not only in the EU but also in LA. It is important, however, that any food versus fuel conflicts that may result from using food or dedicated agricultural land for feedstock production do not arise. Hence the research in DIBANET will be primarily dedicated towards the utilisation of waste or residual materials that do not require dedicated land and should, in doing so, expand the biomass feedstock available for biofuel production.
DIBANET defines a diesel miscible biofuel (DMB) as one which meets EN590 specifications, can be mixed with fossil diesel and used in a regular diesel engine. The Figure below illustrates the pathways in a conceptual DIBANET Processes Chain, starting with one tonne of a typical biomass feedstock (e.g. sugarcane bagasse), for the production of DMBs.
The Process Chain is designed so that the maximal yields of DMBs will result in a sustainable manner. It involves the following steps:
Optimisation of the sourcing, selection and preparation of the feedstock.
The hydrolysis and subsequent degradation of biomass. This can produce (i) levulinic acid, (ii) furfural (which can be converted to levulinic acid via hydrogenation), (iii) formic acid, and (iii) solid residues (SR).
The esterification of levulinic acid with (sustainable) ethanol to produce the DMB ethyl-levulinate.
Pyrolysis of some or all of the SR to produce a bio-oil and a biochar. Pyrolysis can be enhanced by using the formic acid produced in (2) as a co-feed.
Upgrading (catalytic) of the bio-oil to produce an upgraded bio-oil (UBO) that is miscible with diesel.
Utilisation of the biochar as a soil-amender for plant-growth promotion or to fuel the processes.
There will be a focus on the minimisation of the use of fossil fuels throughout the process. This may require that certain steps in the DIBANET process chain are removed (to enable some of the mass flow to be used for the production of process heat and energy) or that other sources of renewable energy are added. Excitingly, it is possible that a configuration of the DIBANET process chain may provide a means for obtaining carbon negative biofuels through using biochar as a soil amender. Biochar is highly resistant to degradation, hence its addition to land (rather than its combustion) can offer a very effective means for sequestering carbon.
Played a major role in the writing of the proposal and securing of funding. His primary reponsilibity in DIABNET is for the analysis of feedstocks and development of NIR as a rapid analytical tool.
His primary role is in the design, construction and validation of the reactor system that will produce levulinic acid, furfural and formic acid from the residues and wastes of Europe and Latin America.
Recent News Articles
Here are some recent news articles relevant to this project, for more news articles please refer to the News webpage.
Oct 1, 2009
Donncha Haverty Joins Carbolea Team
We are pleased to announce that today Donncha Harverty started work at Carbolea. He is employed in our FP7 project DIBANET. He will be responsible for the design, construction and operation of a lab-scale hydrolysis system that will take, as feedstocks, numerous residues and wastes from Europe and Latin America. The target will be high yields of valuable platform chemicals from which a suite of biofuels and industrial chemicals can be synthesised. Donncha has extensive experience in reactor design and construction and will be a valuable member in the team.
Sep 1, 2009
Call for Submissions for DIBANET Scholarship is Now Closed
The application phase for submissions for a DIBANET PhD scholarship for Latin American students to undertake a full PhD here at the University of Limerick, as announced previously on Carbolea, has now closed. We have received a large number of applications with many highly talented people on the candidate list. The deliberation process will now begin and announcement of the successful candidate will follow.
August 1, 2009
Daniel Hayes and Corinna Byrne Join DIBANET
Daniel Hayes has taken up a new position in DIBANET, the FP7 project being co-ordinated by Carbolea that involves research collaboration between the European Union and Latin America. Daniel will be primarily involved in Work Package 2 which concerns the analysis of the lignocellulosic residues and wastes of both regions, the development of near infrared spectrscopy (NIRS) as a primary analytical tool, and the incorporation of NIRS for online analysis at a Brazilian sugarmill. Daniel leaves his current position in the Carbolea waste project funded by the EPA STRIVE program and this position will be filled by Raymond McInerney.
Corinna Byrne has taken the position of Project Manager for DIBANET. She will be responsible for the co-ordination of the project and management of budgets, staff and deliverables.
It is expected that further recruitments to DIBANET will be announced on Carbolea in the coming weeks.
July 8, 2009
DIBANET Kick-Off Meeting
July 8th saw the official kick-off meeting for DIBANET, the new FP7 project co-ordinated by Carbolea. Many of the partners attended with a large contingent from Latin America making the journey. The day started with a welcoming and introduction to the University followed by a series of presentations by each partner detailing their capacities and roles in DIBANET (pictured, left). Very conductive discussions then followed in seminar sessions and the networking continued late into the night with a traditional Irish Banquet in nearby Bunratty Castle (pictured, right). The following day many attendees were brought to see the marvels of the Cliffs of Moher, a tourist attraction near to the University.
July 1, 2009
Daniel Hayes Presents at CONEIAP XIX
In a sign of Carbolea's increasingly strong links with Latin America in the field of biomass and biofuels research, Daniel Hayes presented to the CONEIAP XIX 2009 Conference in Cali, Colombia. The presentation was entitled "The New Generation of Biofuels: How Europe and Latin America Can Work Together" and can be downloaded from this website.
July 1, 2009
Launch of DIBANET
Today marks the first day of DIBANET, the large multinational FP7 research project being co-ordinated by Carbolea. Details of this project are available on this website. On July 8th 2009 the University of Limerick will hold the official kick-off ceremony for the project and it is expected that many of the partners from Europe and Latin America will attend. A total of 30 people will be involved in this project between all of the partners and it is expected that Carbolea will be announcing the recruitment of several new members over the next few months so keep your eyes on the website for further updates. More information about DIBANET can be found on the appropriate webpage.
Downloads
Presentations
"DIBANET - The Production of Sustainable Diesel Miscible Biofuels from the Residues and Wastes of Europe and Latin America" - A keynote address by Michael Hayes to the international symposium entitled "Tailor Made Fuels from Biomass" at the University of Aachen, Germany (June 24, 2009).
"DIBANET - Development of Integrated Biomass Approaches Network" - A poster on the DIBANET project, which is being co-ordinated by Carbolea. The poster was prepared by Corinna Byrne for the IRCSET 2009 Symposium "Innovation Fuelling the Smart Society" (25th September 2009).
