The T.H2 project launched by Vincent Calleja, CEO of the Tertu Group since 2018, intends to produce second-generation biofuel then green hydrogen in Blainville-sur-Orne, just outside Caen.
Why? To recycle up to 120,000 tons of waste wood every year and promote green transport in Normandy. On top of that, the factory and process are carbon neutral. Let’s find out more about a Normandy innovation.
Repurposing wood chips for sustainable biofuel production with the T.H2 project
It’s the Orne company’s pride and joy championed by all the staff and the CEO, Vincent Calleja, at the leading timber-metal crash barrier manufacturer.
Their pride and joy is called T.H2, for Tertu Hydrogen.
It all began with a question: what can we do with 1-2 semi-trailers’ worth of wood chips produced every day just from making crash barriers? Is there something different we can do with these natural products?
They were going to be used to power the furnace or to make particle board. We even founded a company with other Normandy sawmills called Biocombustible. But some manufacturers didn't want to use it anymore so I began exploring another avenue.
“We broadened the scope to include wood waste with paint, glue, resin or some form of treatment, basically, pollutants from old furniture or pallets,” says the CEO.
Why? To be innovative, game-changing and useful. Two ideas came to the fore: make bio-based resin or hydrogen. The last idea is the one that did it for the young CEO. “Green hydrogen didn’t mean anything to anyone in 2018. I liked the idea because it was bonkers. “
One exclusivity, two innovations in Normandy
“I got right into it and began travelling the world to find a solution in 2018,” says Vincent Calleja. All kinds of design offices, a world tour of existing technology…
He found a form of technology capable of turning biofuel into syngas in India; an American company uses gas to feed tiny bacteria, ferment them and distil them to make biofuel. “It was a high-security lab with 500 researchers who could turn gas into any molecule using bacteria and their fermentation. “
It paid off for Vincent Calleja and he brought the two innovations together to make his project a reality.
“My idea was to combine the rough and ready but successful Indian technique together with the cutting-edge American technology.” The new exclusivity saw Vincent Calleja focus his attention on green hydrogen first so he could sell it. “But the market wasn’t ready and fuel kept cropping up as a requirement in the conversation. That led me to tweak my project. “
What was his idea? To hold onto the hydrogen production process but turn it into biofuel on-site, with the capacity to return to hydrogen production at a later date.
We only work with level 1 bacteria: ethanol or fuel is just turning protein into alcohol, which is exactly what we've been doing in Normandy for centuries when we've used our apples to make calvados. It's the same process.
Leading the way in second-generation biofuel production with the T.H2 project
This isn’t your ordinary biofuel made from wood chips; this is second-generation biofuel.
“First-generation biofuel is derived from crops for the food market, i.e. beetroot; second-generation biofuel comes from non-edible biomass; in the case of T.H2, wood chips are made into biofuel,“ says Vincent Calleja.
In terms of ratio, around 110,000 tons of wood produce 21,000 tons of biofuel; the rest is biochar and gas.
Government guidelines have also played a part in the decision, since half of fuel must be second-generation in a few years. “Currently, most of it is made from agricultural products: that means the market is opening up significantly. “
As soon as the announcement about manufacturing this kind of future biofuel was made official, in 2021, demand soared: the equivalent of 300% of forecast production, estimated at 80,000 litres per day.
There’s even another market: French luxury groups are interested in second-generation biofuel for their perfumes and deodorants as part of their CSR policies.
Complex and sustainable processes
So how do you turn wood into biofuel?
“We apply very high temperatures to the wood to break down its molecular structure. This results in syngas and a solid called char. That’s when the magic happens,” says Vincent Calleja.
There’s only one rule for each stage of the process he drew up with design offices: go full circle and get as much out of it as possible. Let’s take a look at the stages involved in the process.
Stage 1
The first stage is “pyro-gasification”, which involves applying very high temperatures to the wood to turn it into gas. “It takes us from wood in its solid state to a gas state – underneath you get a solid residue called biochar or char depending on how polluted the wood is.” This high temperature operation is endogenous, so it doesn’t need any extra matter or specific energy for it to work. “It’s self-sufficient, which is why our tool operates 24/7 all year. “
Stage 2
The second stage involves reducing the solid char and gas to room temperature to create condensation. A highly-polluted liquid will then have its impurities removed and be reintroduced into the process, whilst the remaining gas will be used to make hydrogen or fuel.
“This gas is high in hydrogen. I can either send it to a series of water gas reactors (which isolate hydrogen from the rest of the gas to obtain pure hydrogen), or I can use it to make biofuel. The latter is our best option because there’s a market for it at the moment. “
This transformation uses bacteria and fermentation in a process fine-tuned by the American lab.
“Everything goes into a massive tube which we feed gas into from the bottom and water and bacteria from the top so the gas inoculates it. We end up with bacteria that’s grown exponentially at the bottom, whilst at the top, we have lean gas containing less hydrogen and CO2 than before. “
Waste nothing, repurpose everything
The calorific part – the remaining gas – then goes into a furnace to fuel the system’s steam, heat and 35% of the factory’s electricity.
As for the bacteria enlarged by gas, it’s fermented and distilled to produce two things: ethanol, i.e. pure alcohol, to be made into biofuel, and something called leachate, a sludgy liquid made up of protein, water and sludge.
The idea was to focus on the same objective at every stage of the process. Be as efficient as possible and go full circle.
A small on-site water treatment plan will separate the liquid from the sludge – ” water will be reintroduced into the network again to go full circle. A machine, like an anaerobic digester, will help us dry out the sludge and extract the methane which will also go into the furnace,” says Vincent Calleja. As for the remaining high-protein residue, the CEO is working with a lab to turn it into an additive for fish food.
All this led to T.H2. Nothing is left of one ton of wood; everything is reused in one way or another.
Operation cost: at least 160 million Euros.
A whole host of awards – Normandy4Good, écomaison etc. – for an ambitious project: 5% of the biofuel used in France will be produced by the T.H2 pilot factory in à Blainville-sur-Orne.
The Seine Axis, from Gennevilliers to Le Havre
… via the Brittany coastline. Sawmills, biofuels, wood panel manufacturers and more.
Local recycling centres will provide the rest of the wood waste the T.H2 project needs.
“In terms of the call for expression of interest for prospective wood suppliers, one criteria is that wood waste must be shipped by boat, where possible. I want to be consistent in what I do. “
Did you know?
- 1,200,000 tons of wood waste are generated every year in Normandy and île de France – for example, 500,000 tons are used in boiler rooms.
- The rest is burnt at the bottom of the garden, buried or exported.
The process and project were approved in December 2021 and are still under review, with the hope of laying the first stone in December 2024.
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