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Cluster Biofuels Denmark
- Bio-mass refinery of the future under development in Kalundborg
Cluster Biofuels Denmark
Cluster Biofuels Denmark (CBD)
is a bio-mass refinery cluster initiative originally supported by the Danish Enterprise and Construction Authority and the EU regional Fund in 2008.
The purpose is to establish partnerships and attract investments for pilot and demonstration installations to exploit waste products from farming and household waste to convert these into new high and low value products. The initiative stemmed from the idea of further refining waste products from Inbicon's second-generation bioethanol.
The Danish transport sector is one of the major culprits when it comes to CO2 emissions, and mixing ethanol into petrol is one way of reducing this sector's emissions. The former climate minister therefore proposed legislation requiring petrol for use in cars to contain 5.75% ethanol. Biofuels are the future – and the future lives in Kalundborg.
Second generation biofuels
Cluster Biofuels Denmark (CBD) is a regional technology centre for the bio-mass refinery industry. CBD is a partnership between DONG Energy, Inbicon, Kalundborg Municipality and Roskilde University (RUC), which will create new partnerships and new knowledge for the development of second-generation biofuels.
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Focus on bioethanol
CBD is initially concentrating on the production of bio ethanol: Inbicon has the world's largest demonstration plant for the production of second-generation lignocellulose-based bio ethanol made from wheat straw. Cluster Biofuels Denmark is gathering international experiences with bio ethanol and bio-refining waste products from bioethanol production.
Rice straw and waste
"There is an awful lot going on in the world right now when it comes to biofuels. In China they are experimenting with the production of bioethanol from rice straw which will have enormous potential in such a large rice producing country as China. In our region one of our ambitions is to build a test installation that can convert biological household waste into bioethanol," explains CBD director Niels Larsen.
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Major regional perspective
"In our region, the development of new technologies the production of biofuels has a very exciting perspective, because we have one of the world's leading producers of enzymes, Novozymes, as our next door neighbour: In order to produce ethanol from e.g. straw you have to extricate the sugars from the straw – which purpose we use enzymes. Similarly, we also benefit tremendously from our close proximity to DONG's large power station, Asnæsværket," Larsen emphasises. In this way we achieve synergies by having different industries located in close proximity to each other as is the case in Kalundborg's world-famous industrial symbiosis.
Bio-refining expertise and cluster centre
CBD's perspective has less to do with the manufacture of bioethanol and much more to do with creating a bio-refining test and demonstration centre for the benefit of small and medium-sized companies and market leaders. The cluster centre takes as its starting point Inbicon's waste products, among other things. So the role of CBD - in close collaboration with market-leading industries and the latest research - is to enable companies and research to get closer to commercial operation by means of actual demonstrations. The idea is to produce new high value products to replace oil based chemical and pharmaceutical products. In precisely the same way as a modern oil refinery, but using waste products from e.g. agriculture instead of fossil fuels like oil and gas. Thanks to close collaboration between industry, research and CBD, a number of project collaborations have already been launched. Several of these also include potential investments in pilot and demonstration installations. Furthermore, CBD has become part of the Danish National Biomass Innovation Network, with responsible for bio-refining.
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