Under the upgrade contract, EQTEC will be responsible for purchasing, installing, commissioning and start-up of the Fischer-Tropsch unit
EQTEC secures contract to upgrade waste to energy facility in Spanish university. (Credit: EQTEC PLC)
UK-based bioscience energy company EQTEC has secured a contract to upgrade the current syngas research and development facility located at the University of Extremadura in Badajoz, Spain.
The contract has been awarded following a successful funding application by the University to the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The funding will be utilised to support the testing of the production of biofuels from syngas using a Fisher-Tropsch process and unit.
The installation of the unit will enable the production of biofuels at the site using EQTEC’s advanced gasification process, syngas, which has been used at the facility since 2010.
EQTEC will install Fischer-Tropsch unit at the university’s facility
Under the upgrade contract, EQTEC will be responsible for purchasing, installing, commissioning and start-up of the Fischer-Tropsch unit.
For the unit, the firm has secured short-term project level financing from CAIXA Bank in Spain.
EQTEC chief technology officer Yoel Aleman said: “Our continuous work with universities and technology research centres is a testament of our ambition to remain a technology thought leader in our sector and our desire to continue to develop our technology for wider applications.
“Having access to the testing Facility, where we could use the pure syngas produced from our advanced gasification technology to produce biofuels, should assist in validating to all future stakeholders the quality of our process and the versatility of application of our technology.”
The Fischer-Tropsch unit installation as well as the sign off from the university is expected to be completed in third quarter of this year. After the completion of the installation, the university will reimburse the EQTEC out of the ERDF funding.
The firm said that the Fischer-Tropsch process is a catalytic chemical reaction in which compounds in syngas are transformed into liquid transportation fuels.
Upon completion of the upgrade, the facility will allow EQTEC to carry out tests with various types of biomass and waste feedstocks that will be processed into clean syngas and then into sustainable biofuels that include biodiesel and other transportation fuels.