Success story: Biobased gasoline from sawdust via pyrolysis oil and refinery upgrading
At the Pyrocell facility in Gävle, Sweden, sawdust is converted to pyrolysis oil. The pyrolysis plant is situated at the Setra Kastet sawmill and has just been commissioned; production started in September 2021. The facility is designed to produce about 25 000 ton of biobased pyrolysis oil per year and the target is that all this pyrolysis oil will be upgraded to renewable fuel at Preem’s refinery in Lysekil, Sweden. The Lysekil cracker (FCC) can co-process about 100 000 ton pyrolysis oil per year with the current quality and properties of the pyrolysis oil. It is likely that similar crackers around the world could follow this example and process similar amounts.
Today, there is an upper limit on the share of pyrolysis oil which can be co-refined in an FCC unit. To further increase the renewable fraction of the produced gasoline, more technology development is needed.
Picture of the Pyrocell pyrolysis plant in Gävle, Sweden
