In any liquefaction process of biomass, the products are: gas, oil and solids (char).  The goal is of course to maximise oil yield and minimize gas and solids, but a complete conversion with no gas or solids is likely not possible.  Fortunately, some solids might not be an issue in a marine engine as the dimensions are rather large, and the time for combustion is rather long. However, a better understanding of the particles, their size, composition and how they behave in the bio-oil and solvents will help to determine whether they should be removed from the oil and used for better purposes (e.g. soil amendment) or if they can be left in the oil.

Extraction is a very interesting process that can be used to purify the oil and extract a certain oil fractions. We would like to investigate how such a system could be designed and incorporated into the Kvasir process. Ongoing work in the laboratory suggests that it could be feasible. The work is expected to be done by literature study, simulation and laboratory work.