Production of primary liquids by fast pyrolysis of biomass has been commercialised at a small scale in Canada and has been actively and extensively developed throughout Europe. Some of the early problems with liquid quality are being successfully addressed and rapid progress is being made in producing a liquid that will satisfy most applications. There are many aspects of the pyrolysis system that require addressing as well as in the development of more innovative, more efficient and more lower cost reactors. Of particular importance is minimisation of solid char and ash in the product through vapour or liquid phase processing and improvements in liquid collection. In addition the quality of the product is important for different applications and work is needed to both measure these properties against application requirements and provide appropriate norms and standards. There is a need for better co-ordination between the research institutions and companies involved in this area to ensure that problems, solutions and developments are fully and sensibly exploited to more quickly bring the technologies to commercial fruition. This will be partly addressed in the new IEA programmes and the PyNE Concerted Action project.

Upgrading of pyrolysis oils to transport fuel and higher quality energy products by hydrotreating is very expensive and unlikely to be viable in the short to medium term, as well as having a number of technical problems relating to catalyst stability that require resolution. Work should however continue to ensure that the science is sufficiently well understood so that the technology can be developed when required. Zeolite upgrading and analogous in-situ or close-coupled catalytic upgrading is less well developed but offers more short term promise, as a separate process is not required, there is no hydrogen requirement and costs would probably be little different from fast pyrolysis. This is an area that deserves more consideration and support. Other innovative possibilities for upgrading should also be encouraged.

Chemicals recovery is potentially important from the novel chemicals that might be recovered the high added value of speciality chemicals and the contribution that these would make to an integrated biomass based conversion system. There is a need for continued evaluation and exploration of products and applications. Development of catalytic pyrolysis systems will add to the interest of this approach.