Within the CAPE-OPEN 2021 Annual Meeting, Dr Robbie VENDERBOSCH presented (PDF, 3298 Kbytes) on the use of COFE at Biomass Technology Group (BTG).
The live recording of his presentation is available on the CAPE-OPEN Channel at YouTube.
After his PhD at the Twente University in 1998, Robbie Venderbosch joined Biomass Technology Group BV (BTG) where he is now a Senior Researcher. He has more than twenty years of practical experience in thermochemical processes for biomass and its further use. He (co-)authored more than 50 papers, conference proceedings and chapters in books. Since 2002 Venderbosch is involved in stabilisation, hydrogenation and hydrodeoxygenation of bio-oil, as project leader in national and international programs.
In his presentation Robbie explained first what is Biomass Technology Group BV before explaining what is fast pyrolysis of organic material. He listed several plants operating with this process which was developed by BTG. He then stressed out how the use of flowsheeting techniques made possible to convince prospects that became clients. He was himself convinced of the possibilities of flowsheeting applied to the conversion of biomass by a paper published in 2013 and co-authored by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory.
Robbie went on detailing how the different sections of the process have been modelled in COFE and what were the modelling challenges to overcome. In perspective is now the introduction of custom-made fluid catalytic cracking models, perhaps using the Python CAPE-OPEN Unit Operation for linking with other resources. Robbie also stressed out that the openness and free availability of COFE is a real plus in collaborative projects involving many partners with different experiences and habits in term of flowsheeting.