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PES-HORISONT-EU-PES Horisont Europa

PES2021 for SynolysCarbon EIC Application

Awarded: NOK 74,999

Project Manager:

Project Number:

329212

Project Period:

2021 - 2021

Subject Fields:

WAI Environmental Solutions has developed SynolysCarbon, a seamless add-on process equipment for new or existing anaerobic digestion plants that increases the biogas production by 100%, while also producing tar and biochar as valuable products. Our solution is a process technology that combines biological and thermal processes, i.e. Synolys® and pyrolysis. The integration of both allows to use almost any organic waste as feedstock, i.e. not only treat sewage sludge, manure and food waste, but also lignocellulosic (woody) biomass waste (without expensive pre-treatment as for conventional anaerobic digestion plants). The latter is potentially accessible at 20Gt/yr (source: Tewari et al. 2015), which makes it the most abundantly available waste raw material on the Earth, yet 98% unexploited. Since 2019 multiple milestones were achieved: 1) TRL5 prototypes were assembled at our premises; 2) together with Greve Biogass (one of the largest biogas plants in Norway) and University of Southeast Norway, we were awarded a 3-year grant (€0.4mn) to reach TRL6; 3) Feasibility study with garden waste and plastic-containing reject as non-conventional feedstocks (plus sewage sludge and manure) confirmed that we can boost biogas production in anaerobic digestion as predicted. We also discovered that by controlling the H2 composition in the syngas can lead to even higher outputs – a route that will be further matured and verified during our Accelerator project, by partnering with leading industry players (e.g. Hardanger Biogass as pilot partner). 4) First full-scale pyrolysis demonstration plant will be built in Norway with Ottem (waste transport company).

Funding scheme:

PES-HORISONT-EU-PES Horisont Europa