The CarboREN Technology

The patented CarboREN^® technology from SunCoal Industries homogenizes biomass to biocoal, which is then dried. Using this process, damp biomass with 20–75% water content and a low heating value is converted to biocoal which has similar characteristics as fossil coal.

The CarboREN technology is the most effective technology available for biomass-to-fuel production. The efficient process requires only a minimal amount of energy use (7% of the energy of the produced biocoal) and is designed in modular units to be constructed according to customer needs. Additionally, a wide variety of organic waste materials can be used.

The CarboREN^® Process in Detail

Receiving and Storage

Before being treated, delivered organic waste is stored depending on composition. Storage in the SunCoal Industries CarbonREN^® plant is designed for automatic loading on nights or weekends.

Controlled Crushing, Filtering and Washing

The biomass is crushed and reduced to a grain size of 60 mm and filtered to remove impurities such as stones, metal or plastic. Accumulated waste can either be processed later or disposed of.

Hydrothermal Carbonization (HTC)

In just a few hours, temperatures of 200°C and pressure of 20 bars completely breaks down the structure of the biomass and separates out the water. The resulting HTC-slurry is then removed from the cooker, „de-stressed“ through ambient pressure and cooled.

Mechanical Dehydration

During mechanical dehydration the water content of the HTC-slurry is reduced by 50% by a press. The separated water is mostly reused in the process.

Thermal Drying

The HTC-cake is dried, reducing the water content to less than 5%. Surplus heat from existing plants or existing local or district heating can further increase the economic feasibility. Wastewater produced by the process can either be directed to a treatment plant or treated in the plant itself.

Storage

The resulting biocoal can be processed into SunCoal^® powder, SunCoal granules or SunCoal pellets, according to customer specification, for stored, further refined (for example, into gaseous fuel or syngas), or used directly as fuel.