Sus­tain­able fuels – Oilon solu­tions for a better future

In the dia­logue on renew­able energy, the con­cepts that come up most often are solar power, wind power, hydro-​electric power, and ground-​source heating. However, there are many applic­a­tions where bio­fuels are an unbeat­able solu­tion.

Cur­rently, fossil fuels have a tre­mend­ously strong pos­i­tion in the energy sector, while the trend for the next decades is clearly shift­ing towards sus­tain­able solu­tions. Oilon’s product devel­op­ment stands at the fore­front of util­iz­ing renew­able energy solu­tions.

Examples of sus­tain­able fuels include bio­gases, bio-​oils, and pyro­lysis oils pro­duced from biomass. As such, there is nothing new about using renew­able fuels. At pulp mills, for example, the black liquor pro­duced as a byproduct of the pulping process has been used for decades to produce heat and elec­tri­city.

Pyro­lysis oil is a liquid sub­stance created through dry dis­til­la­tion of organic mater­ial. When made of biomass, it is called either bio-oil or wood oil depend­ing on the raw mater­ial. Typical sources of pyro­lysis oil include wood, bark, straws as well as rice and grain chaff.

Pyro­lysis oils are a chal­len­ging fuel. They have a high acidity and water content, and their vis­cos­ity and other phys­ical prop­er­ties tend to be unstable. Addi­tion­ally, many pyro­lysis oils have a high content of solids, requir­ing special solu­tions for com­bus­tion.

“Oilon has a long exper­i­ence in firing dif­fer­ent pyro­lysis oils and the neces­sary com­pet­ence to select the best mater­i­als and the best com­bus­tion tech­no­logy for the purpose. For example, when using these fuels, select­ing the right fuel pump is crit­ical. Many bio-​oils have a low heating value, and we con­sider each site’s and applic­a­tion’s char­ac­ter­ist­ics to determ­ine the right com­bus­tion tech­no­logy solu­tion for the site,” says Chief Busi­ness Officer Tapio Mur­tonen.

Addi­tion­ally, there are renew­able oils whose prop­er­ties are nearly identical with fossil oils. Hydro­treated veget­able oil (HVO), for example, is a type of high-​quality renew­able diesel that has the same high heating value as light fuel oil. However, an HVO flame emits dif­fer­ent wavelengths of light than a fossil oil flame, which means that it is import­ant to select the right flame detector for the flame. Oilon has per­formed extens­ive research on HVO com­bus­tion in their own product devel­op­ment labor­at­ory. Thanks to extens­ive testing, Oilon has now the com­pet­ence for select­ing and adjust­ing flame detect­ors and other burner com­pon­ents for dif­fer­ent fuels.

Renew­able oils are becom­ing more widely avail­able. As com­bus­tion tech­no­logy allows com­pan­ies to create and promote sus­tain­able energy solu­tions, an increas­ing number of oil com­pan­ies are bring­ing new renew­able liquid fuels to the market along­side their tra­di­tional products.

Bio­gases are another fuel with massive poten­tial. Biogas can be pro­duced from all organic matter, the most import­ant sources being waste, crop residue, and wood. Addi­tion­ally, biogas is gen­er­ated as a byproduct of agri­cul­ture and pro­cesses such as wastewaster treat­ment. As a fuel, biogas is excel­lent: it has a good heating value and low par­tic­u­late emis­sions.

Refined biogas is com­pletely free of heavy metals. Biogas is pro­duced from waste and field residues through anaer­obic diges­tion. Organic matter, such as muni­cipal biowaste, manure, or straws, is placed in an oxygen-​free envir­on­ment. Bac­teria break up the matter, releas­ing methane and, in most cases, byproducts that are suit­able for use as fer­til­izer. In other words, both the energy and the nutri­ents can be recovered and returned to cir­cu­la­tion.

Wood-​based biogas is typ­ic­ally pro­duced through gas­i­fic­a­tion. Wood­chips, forest residues, and other mater­i­als are headed up at a high pres­sure in a low-​oxygen envir­on­ment, releas­ing gas from the mater­ial. This gas can be further refined into a fuel that was nearly the same com­pos­i­tion as natural gas. Nat­ur­ally, com­pared to other bio­fuels, this type of biogas is rel­at­ively easy to adopt.

Whatever the energy source may be, Oilon’s pro­fes­sional sales team makes it easy for cus­tom­ers to select an energy-​efficient burner and sus­tain­able solu­tion for their needs.