CRI/Criterion Catalyst Company UK Ltd, an affiliate of CRI Catalyst Company, a global catalyst technology company wholly owned by Royal Dutch Shell, has awarded a Front End Loading (FEL-2) package license agreement for the IH2 technology which converts biomass to liquid transportation fuels, to Norway-based Biozin Holding AS (BZH) that is planning to build advanced biofuel plants in Norway.
In September 2017, Biozin AS, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bergene Holm AS, one of Norway’s largest wood processing companies and the Swedish oil refiner Preem AB entered into a cooperation with the intention to realize full-scale biofuel production sites in Norway through a joint venture Biozin Holding AS. Bergene Holm operates five sawmills and six planing mills in southern Norway processing approximately 1.1 million m3 of roundwood per annum.
The first production facility of five planned is intended to be located adjacent to Bergene Holm’s Nidarå sawmill in Åmli in southern Norway. According to Biozin, each facility will use feedstock in the form of sawmill and forestry residues to produce 120 000 m3 of “biozin” and 35 000 tonnes of biochar per annum. The “biozin” will then be refined by one of Preem’s refineries in Sweden.
The Front End Loading (FEL-2) package will be completed for the core IH2 technology by global engineering and construction specialists KBR, Inc. (KBR). KBR is CRI’s preferred FEED engineering services provider for commercial-scale IH2 facilities. KBR’s six years of experience with IH2 plant design will help de-risk the commercial scale design.
According to CRI/Criterion, the IH2 technology is an efficient cost-effective route to convert woody biomass and forest residues feedstock into renewable, low carbon, clean-burning hydrocarbon transportation fuels. The process was invented in the United States (US) by Gas Technology Institute (GTI) of Des Plaines, Illinois (IL) and scaled up by CRI Catalyst Company of Houston, Texas (TX) which holds exclusive worldwide licensing rights.
IH2 hydrocarbons produced from woody biomass meet American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) specifications for their respective fuels, positioned for the US market as an E10 gasoline fully renewable product, or as a 100 percent renewable diesel.
Third party testing of the IH2 woody biomass derived neat (R100) kerosene cut, for global jet specifications Jet A-1/JP8, indicates that the material meets these specifications for the properties tested to date. Ongoing research suggests minor adjustments of the technology will be able to provide drop-in hydrocarbon fuels which meet European Standard (EN) specifications for drop-in renewable gasoline and diesel hydrocarbons from the Biozin intended feed slate.
