SECTOR (Production of Solid Sustainable Energy Carriers from Biomass by Means of TORrefaction) is a large-scale European project with a strong consortium of 21 partners from industry and science. The project is focused on the further development of torrefaction-based technologies for the production of solid bioenergy carriers up to pilot-plant scale and beyond, and on supporting the market introduction of torrefaction-based bioenergy carriers as a commodity renewable solid fuel.
In parallel to the development of torrefaction and densification technologies the consortium will work on the assessment of selected logistics aspects and the use of torrefied products in existing conversion options as well as fuel specification and testing methods. This is complemented by a full sustainability assessment of torrefaction-based biomass-to-end-use value chains. The partners CENER (Spain), DTI (Denmark), ECN (Netherlands), Topell (Netherlands) and Umeå University (Sweden) provide the knowhow and equipment for the core technologies of torrefaction and densification. Industry partners such as EON (UK), RWE Innogy (Germany) and Vattenfall (Sweden), amongst others, will concentrate on logistics and end use applications. The scientific organisations, like ofi (Austria), TFZ (Germany) and VTT (Finland), bring in their expertise in terms of analysis and testing methodologies as well as standardisation.