Siemens Energy & Automation, Inc. and the USDA Agricultural Research Service have entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) that will improve the processes used to convert second generation, non-food-based, biofuel feedstocks, including perennial grasses, animal wastes and agricultural residues such as corn stover, into liquid bio-fuel intermediates, such as bio-oil.
As part of the CRADA, Logical Innovations of Richmond, Va., will work with researchers at USDA/ARS's Eastern Regional Research Center (ERRC) in Wyndmoor, Pa., to improve on pyrolysis oil production via innovative control technologies. They will install a distributed control system (DCS) based on Siemens SIMATIC(R) PCS 7 Box technology on ERRC's bench scale, fluidized bed pyrolysis system that heats the biomass in a reactor and converts it to liquid bio-oil, bio-char, and synthetic gas. The project will be commissioned in late 2008.
Source: Feedstuffs
