Workshop on Metrology for Biofuel Industry

The 2nd BIOFMET Stakeholders' Workshop was held at PTB, Braunschweig, Germany, on 28 and 29 of March 2023.

The Workshop on Metrology for Biofuel Industry aimed to present the work developed in the BIOFMET project to interested parties from industries and research and to offer an open forum for discussions based on lectures and posters about the current project progress.

The workshop began with Kai Moshammer (PTB) welcoming the participants. Then, Jan Nielsen (DTI), the project’s coordinator, introduced the BIOFMET project. The aim of BIOFMET is to optimize energy production based on solid and liquid biofuels through better measurement of key parameters impacting the calorific value using sound metrological methods. Jan also explained the concept of metrological traceability and uncertainty of measurement.

Kai Moshammer (PTB)

Jan Nielsen (DTI)

Timo Huotari, from PROMETEC, one of the industrial partners of the project, joined the workshop online and presented the automated sampler developed by PROMETEC. This sampler can collect representative samples of solid biomass directly from the truck load and train wagon before its unloading.

Moaaz Shehab (PTB) discussed the influence of biomass characteristics and their uncertainties on the production of sustainable aviation fuel. In this work, a model was developed in Aspen PLUS to evaluate the use of different biomass types and study the influence of their characteristics and uncertainty on the process performance and yield.

Timo Huotari (PROMETEC)

Moaaz Shehab (PTB)

The use of inline measurement systems for water-content determination at combined heat and power plants provides significant advantages, related e.g., to boiler design and operation. They also bring along a significant challenge related to calibration. Henrik Kjeldsen (DTI) demonstrated how SI-traceable measurements can be carried out in industry by calibrating, using a transfer standard and/or the DTI reference method for water content.

In the afternoon, Bayan Tallawi (LNE-CETIAT) discussed about on-site moisture measurement with a resonant cavity. In this work, an experimental device was developed to estimate the moisture content in solid materials by analysing the microwave spectrum in a cylindrical resonant cavity. Calibration curves were developed to estimate moisture in solid biofuels. Measurements were carried out in an industrial site.

Henrik Kjeldsen (DTI)

Bayan Tallawi (LNE-CETIAT)

Michal Voldán (CMI) described an acoustic device to measure moisture content in wooden pellets and woodchips. This experimental device measures moisture content by measuring the power loss at acoustic resonance modes in a cylindrical container. The results of the experimental tests carried out was presented.

Floriane Sparma (AMU) presented microwave measurement techniques to characterize the impurity content of biofuels for online-monitoring applications. These techniques are based on the existence of dielectric contrasts between biofuels and its impurities.

Michal Voldán (CMI)

Floriane Sparma (AMU)

In the remaining part of the afternoon, the poster session took place, where the following posters were presented:

The influence of biomass characteristics and their uncertainties on the production of sustainable aviation fuel, Moaaz Shehab, PTB
Production and Certification of BIOFMET Project Reference materials, Alper İşleyen, TUBITAK
Calibration on online equipment for water content in solid biofuels, Henrik Kjeldsen, DTI
Traceability of moisture measurements in solid biofuels, Eric Georgin, CETIAT
Principles of acoustic measurement of moisture, Libor Husník, CTU

Poster session

The second day of the workshop started with a presentation from Katarina Hafner-Vuk (IMBiH) about techniques for analysis of major elements in solid biofuels ash and establishment of results’ traceability. In this work, conventional analysis techniques (ICP-OES, MP-AES) were used to characterize the ash composition for relevant elements, in order to establish traceability, i.e., to prepare standards for the calibration of fast field methods that work on the principle of fluorescence x-ray spectrometry.

Alper İşleyen (TUBITAK) joined the workshop online and discussed the production and certification of BIOFMET project reference materials. The presentation included details of the production from the planning phase, processing of candidate materials and their certification measurements (homogeneity, stability and characterization tests).

Katarina Hafner-Vuk (IMBiH)

Alper İşleyen (TUBITAK)

After the coffee break, Michal Voldán (CMI) carried out the presentation on data mining and its applicability to biofuels measurement data, using different algorithms and focusing on the reliability in measured data.

Finally, Selin Heybeli joined online and presented the company Debye Technic, based in Ankara, Turkey. This company studied the certified reference materials 2 and 3 (CRM02 and CRM03) developed by TUBITAK in the scope of BIOFMET. The features of calorimeter IC 210, a device developed by Debye Technic were explained.