Project News

On February 22nd, 2021 the project held the third Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) meeting at Chulalongkorn University by web meeting with committee members including Japanese researchers, Thailand International Cooperation Agency (TICA), Japan Science Technology Agency etc., which consisted of key drivers of the project in attendance. The JCC is held in order to monitor the progress, to discuss problems, and to find solutions for the project. The meeting was chaired by Prof. Tharapong Vitidsant and 26 members were attended.

Prof. Tsubaki, Toyama University, reported that all catalysts, which are catalytic technologies of bio-gasoline, biodiesel, bio-methanol and bio-LPG, have already been prepared for the project. As for the research on catalytic technologies bio-gasoline, capsule catalyst was developed, which is the first in the world to produce premium bio-gasoline from syngas by just one-step and low-cost.

Mr. Watanabe, Japan Coal Energy Center, shared the last gasification operation results. Gasified eucalyptus chips (620kg) resulted to produce total of 540m3 syngas and the syngas is currently stored in the buffer tank at a pressure of about 12 MPa. The H2/CO ratio is 1.6-2.0. Also, the troubles and its countermeasure/improvements taken during the test as well as safety measures were presented.

Dr. Witchakorn Charusiri, Srinakharinwirot University, presented the current status of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study for rubberwood pellet to methanol by gasification and FT catalytic chemical conversion.

In the part one year, the project faced difficulties because of the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope that we can conduct tests at the Chulalongkorn Center of Fuels and Energy from Biomass in Saraburi soon.

77 Tanks for syngas

Preparation of Gasifier operation test