Biomass to liquid (BTL) or BMTL is a multi-step process to produce liquid biofuels from biomass:

The process uses the whole plant to improve the carbon dioxide balance and increase yield.

• The Fischer Tropsch process is used to produce synfuels from gasified biomass. Carbonaceous material is gasified and the gas is processed to make purified syngas (a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen). The Fischer-Tropsch polymerizes syngas into diesel-range hydrocarbons. While biodiesel and bio-ethanol production so far only use parts of a plant, i.e. oil, sugar, starch or cellulose, BTL production uses the whole plant which is gasified by gasification. The result is that for BTL, less land area is required per unit of energy produced compared with biodiesel or bio-ethanol.
• Flash pyrolysis - producing bio-oil (pyrolysis oil), char and gas at temperatures between 350-550°C and residence times < 1 second (also called anhydrous pyrolysis).
• Catalytic depolymerization - using heat and catalysts to separate usable diesel fuel from hydrocarbon wastes.

[edit] See also

• Bioconversion of biomass to mixed alcohol fuels
• BMF fuel
• Gas to liquid
• Gasification
• NExBTL - despite the name BTL, the feedstock is plant oil, not whole plants.
• Non food crops
• Pyrolysis
• Thermal Depolymerization
• Vegetable oil refining

[edit] External links

• "Synthetic Diesel May Play a Significant Role as Renewable Fuel in Germany" at USDA FAS website
• Enzymatic Hydrolysis at DOE EERE website