The Politecnico di Milano coordinates a consortium of nine partners from four European countries, which will work together on the four-year project PYSOLO (PYrolysis of biomass by concentrated SOLar pOwer), funded by the European Commission with approximately 5 million euros, in the framework of the Horizon Europe programme. Researchers from our Department of Energy, led by Prof. Marco Binotti, will be involved in the project.
The aim is to develop an innovative process that combines the concentrated solar radiation and the biomass pyrolysis in order to obtain bio-oil with negative CO2 emissions, contributing to the decarbonization and defossilization of the chemical industry and the transport sector.
The pyrolysis gas and biochar will not be burned to provide heat to the pyrolysis reactor, as happens in the conventional pyrolysis processes, but they will be additional useful products that can be used for both energy and non-energy purposes, such as the synthesis of biofuels for the transport sector and agricultural use (char can be used as fertilizer). A significant innovation in the PYSOLO technology is the ability to operate in different modes, making the process flexible and capable of both producing and absorbing electrical energy from the grid.
