Biomass Technology Centre

The Biomass Technology Centre, BTC, is a research pilot plant for refining of solid biomass and industrial bio-based by-products. The infrastructure is designed for pre-processing, upgrading, handling, and storage of large quantities of biomass materials and biobased residual streams. The facility provides the ability to perform reliable and representative sampling from ton to grams of heterogeneous materials and to prepare specific assortments through mechanical fractioning, sieving, milling, briquetting, and pelletizing. Specific pilot scale technologies/equipment setups are: chipping (wood), shredding (bark, agricultural, waste fractions), plane drying (wood chips), cyclone drying (sludge, etc.), hammer milling (dry biomass), log milling (wet logs), density and size fractioning, briquetting, pelleting, bulk silos for discharge and flowability analysis, pellet combustion, and ovens for thermal treatment. Drying cabinets and sample preparation mills and sieves are also available. Two full-time research engineers are providing technical support in experimental planning and are enhancing the use of larger scale equipment.