5.1.1 Introduction

Alten stands for Alternative Energy Technologies which was a consortium of KTI and Italenergie, but is no longer in partnership. The aim of this activity was to develop a small scale pyrolysis process to convert wood and agricultural wastes into marketable fuel products such as fuel oil, charcoal and char-water slurries. It was envisaged that a network of small pyrolysis plants would produce bio-oil to fire a 27MWe power station in Avezzano. The project is important for being the largest plant in Europe and for providing valuable data on process design, optimisation, and qualitative results. Substantial quantities of oil were produced for testing

The pyrolysis plant was in operation from 1985 to 1989, and was, and still is, the largest biomass pyrolysis unit that has been dedicated to bio-oil production in Europe. The design capacity of the plant was 1 t/h dry biomass, but only up to 500 kg/h has been achieved on a continuous basis. The nature of the process was that relatively slow pyrolysis occurred giving a secondary oil that had a low water tolerance and high viscosity. Although the product quality caused problems, the availability of large quantities of pyrolysis liquids for testing and evaluation caused serious attention to be focused on direct liquefaction for the first time in Europe.