Mortimer Technology wins Queens Award for Enterprise in Innovation with TORBED Energy Technologies

20-Apr-2010 - The Mortimer Technology group of Thatcham, Berkshire, with its Torftech subsidiaries in the UK and Canada, is the proud recipient of a Queens Award for Enterprise in the Innovation category for 2010 presented by the Hon Mrs Bayliss, Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire on behalf of Her Majesty the Queen. The innovations that won the award were all based on a novel method of processing solids in gas streams invented by Chris Dodson and marketed under the trade name TORBED Energy Technologies. These are patented techniques for use in energy generation, mineral, chemical, petroleum and environmental process industries. More than 160 plants have now been installed internationally. These technologies have done for sections of the process industries what Sir James Dyson has done with the vacuum cleaner – revolutionised them!

Martin Groszek, Group Managing Director of Mortimer Technology, commented “We are delighted to have been selected to receive the Queens Award – as a small team, we have worked hard to anticipate the new emerging biomass and waste to energy markets and to develop appropriate technologies to meet what we anticipated to be rapidly growing demands. Our technologies are now ideally positioned to gain markets worth in excess of £700m for the applications that we have listed here.”

Mortimer Technology has been given the award specifically for developing:

- a new 'torrefaction' process for the conversion of biomass into a 'biocoal' in minutes (instead of 60m years!) which gives a 92% reduction in CO₂ emissions against conventional pulverised coal as a fuel.

- a novel modular biomass gasification conversion unit for industrial and commercial scale heat and power plant which in Poland, for example, can reduce emissions by 22m tonnes CO₂ annually with a 20% market penetration in their heating stations.

- a novel process for turning paper ‘sludge’ from paper recycling mills (1 tonne sludge for every tonne of paper processed) into steam energy for the paper mill and a valuable mineral feed for the cement industry.

- a new combustion process for rice husks to provide energy and a valuable amorphous silica as a cement displacement.

Topell Energy of Netherlands to construct 60,000 tonne/annum biomass torrefaction plant using TORBED Energy Technologies

18-Jan-2010 - Topell Energy of the Netherlands was granted a worldwide license in 2008 to use the TORBED Technology for converting biomass into ‘biocoal’ pellets. A demonstration plant was established by Topell in 2009 and tonnage samples have been successfully produced. With funding from RWE Innogy, the first full scale production plant, with a production capacity of 60,000 tonnes per year, is now in manufacture for installation during 2010 at Duiven in Eastern Holland. Biocoal pellets have a very high energy density as well as significantly improved product properties and can be burned together with coal in conventional power plants (co-firing).

The process developed by Topell can be applied to various raw organic materials - even comparatively difficult biomass, such as roots and switch grass, are converted into pellets through mild pyrolysis, torrefaction, using the TORBED Reactor technology and finally, pelletisation.

The production process guarantees high flexibility with the regard to the raw material used; it is therefore unnecessary to draw on foodstuffs. Biocoal is also easy to transport. For co-firing with conventional coal, no further infrastructure measures, e.g. separate storage or crushing, are required.

TORBED biomass gasification technology selected for first Polish district heating station retrofit

08-Jan-2010 - City Thermal Power Plant (MZEC) in Swidnica, Poland, has signed an agreement with a consortium of companies, MTS Energy Systems, to install a new technology that allows the heating station to generate heat from the gasification of biomass. The cost of this first plant in Europe amounts to nearly 7 million PLN. Although the gasification of biomass to produce heat energy is increasingly widespread, the ‘multi-fuel’ capability to be supplied and installed by MTS has not yet been used on any other heating stations. Planning work on the project has taken 2 years to date.

The MTS Energy Systems consortium of companies, Mostostal (Polish), Torftech (English) and SFUP Servis (Polish), is to design and construct the new biomass gasification facility to handle loose straw and wood chips. Installation is due to be complete in six months. It is the first stage of investment in the generation of electricity and heat from biomass.

Financial resources for the investment at MZEC, aside from its own capital resources, has been secured from a grant from the Foundation EcoFund and from the National Fund for Environmental Protection.

“The main objective of the new technology is heat production based on biomass gasification. We want to replace coal with oilseed rape and wheat straw, or wood and wood waste. Through this use of renewable energy sources we will limit air pollution in the city. It will not only be a benefit for residents in the form of cleaner air, but also a chance to limit price increases for their heating. Thanks to this new technology, our company will save on fees for release of CO2 into the atmosphere” - said Ryszard Sobanski, President MZEC in Swidnica, as quoted on the official site of the town of Swidnica.

Source: wnp.pl (Patricia Lash)