We’re pleased to share that two new publications for FUEL-UP project have been recently published following the participation of Matteo Gilardi, Research Scientist, SINTEF, in the ESCAPE Conference 2026 last June in Sheffield, UK.
The first publication entilted “Re-parametrisation of NRTL model for C1+ organics and alcohols recovery from aqueous phase in pyrolysis oil production” by Matteo Gilardi, Filippo Bisotti, Trung Trinh and Bernd Wittgens, introduces a modelling processs which retunes the activity-based model in order to improve the NRTL model predictivity, using experimental data retrieved from NIST ThermoData Engine V10.1. The resulting re-parametrised NRTL shows improved accuracy and reliability compared to the existing models.
The second publication entitled “Process design for the recovery of valuable organic compounds from pyrolysis oil aqueous phase” by Matteo Gilardi, Filippo Bisotti, Stefan Schmidt, Rune Myrstad, Camilla Otterlei, Trung Trinh and Bernd Wittgens, introduces SINTEF’s process to isolate the chemicals embodied in the aqueous phase and exploit them as intermediates to generate biofuels, biochemicals, and pharmaceutical products. The process consists of a train of four distillation columns to maximise the recovery rate and purity of the two targeted products. Results show that up to 95% and 98% yield can be achieved for methanol and ethanol, respectively. Methanol purity is limited to a maximum of 92 wt% due to the presence of volatile impurities, while ethanol contains residual propanol (6 wt%). The overall heat demand is in the order of 1 MJ/kg feed.
You can download both publications at the following links: