Biomass and Bioenergy Vol. 14, No. 3, pp.

289±293, 1998
# 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
Printed in Great Britain
PII: S0961-9534(97)10041-1 0961-9534/98 $19.00 + 0.00

THE ITALIAN STEAM EXPLOSION PROGRAM AT ENEA

R. AVELLA and E. SCODITTI
ENEA CR Casaccia, St. Maria di Galeria, Via Anguillarese, Rome, Italy

(Received 8 August 1994; accepted 1 May 1995)

AbstractÐThe Italian National Agency for New Technology, Energy and Environment (ENEA) con-
ducts research, development and testing on innovative technologies and equipment and on technology
transfer to industry and agriculture. The Agency has a sta€ of around 5000 Italy-wide. In 1987, ENEA
began a research project on new processes and technologies concerning the conversion of ligno-cellulo-
sic materials. In 1992, a continuous steam explosion pilot plant designed by Stake Technology Ltd.,
Ontario, Canada was installed at the ENEA Trisaia Centre in Southern Italy. This has a capacity of
175 Kg hÿ1 throughput of dry biomass. The plant is also equipped with two continuous extraction sys-
tems for the separation of hemicellulose, lignin and cellulose. This work presents the main character-
istics of the continuous pilot plant, the strategies and/or products; ®nally, introduces new applications
of the steam explosion process which ENEA is carrying out in collaboration with an Italian Firm,
SADEPAN CHIMICA Spa, to produce ®breboards or chemicals from agro-industrial residues. # 1998
Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

KeywordsÐSteam explosion; ®breboards; chemicals; deinking

1. INTRODUCTION advanced technologies and new products

ENEA (Italian National Agency for New
Technology, Energy and Environment) is the
Italian Government Agency responsible for
the areas of new technology, energy and en-
vironment with the aim to conduct research
and to di€use the results nationally.
More particularly ENEA's activities involve:
1. research, development and testing of inno-
vative technologies and equipment, and
transfer of innovations to industry and
agriculture;
2. development of technologies, equipment
and components designed to exploit renew-
able energy sources and to save energy, and
stimulation of demand for them; design,
construction and testing of demonstration
plants;
3. research and testing of innovative nuclear
reactors possessing greater inherent of pas-
sive safety; dismantling of fuel cycle sys-
tems in earlier generation nuclear plants;
4. research on nuclear fusion in extensive
collaboration with the Italian and
International scienti®c communities;
5. environmental surveying and monitoring;
research and assessment of the impact of
productive activities on the human and
natural environments; development of
289
with low environmental impact.
In addition, ENEA is responsible for the licen-
sing and control of all operations involving
the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
The Agency has a sta€ of around 5000,
operating nine major Research Centers and a
number of smaller facilities throughout Italy.
In such context the ENEA's activities,
regarding the ligno-cellulosic biomasses use
from the energetic and industrial point of
view, are addressed to the improvement of
processes characterized by reduced energy con-
sumption and low environmental impact.
The program launched in the early 1987
included biomass conversion and among these,
the Steam Explosion Technology,1 appeared
to be the most promising and ®tting ENEA's
needs. A National survey was carried out in
order to de®ne the industrial opportunities.
Simultaneously, a technology international
assessment was undertaken, and was chosen in
1992 Stake Technology Ltd (Canada) to
supply a steam explosion continuous plant,
which was installed at ENEA's Trisaia Center
in Southern Italy. The continuous plant is
coupled with a 10 l batch reactor for labora-
tory tests. The facility is also equipped with a
chemical laboratory for materials and pro-
ducts characterization analysis. ENEA intends
290 R. AVELLA and E. SCODITTI

Table 1. Raw material characteristics Table 1. The plant con®guration (Fig. 1)

Composition (% dry) Straw Wood acquired by ENEA consists mainly of:
Hemicellulose 35.1 26.0
Pentosan (in hemicell.) 23.8 22.2 1. Biomass storage and handling
Lignin 13.7 21.0 2. StakeTech system
Cellulose 39.0 51.0
Ash 8.0 1.0
3. Aqueous extraction
Protein 4.2 1.0 4. Alkaline extraction
Moisture content (%) 10 50 5. Waste treatment

1. Wood chips or chopped straw, stored on-

to utilize this system for research activities on
industrial processes and new chemical pro-
ducts2 shared in cost co-operations with
national and foreign industries, involved in
this ®eld.
Recently a commercial cooperation
Agreement was signed between ENEA and
StakeTech, in which ENEA serves the role of
performing laboratory and pilot plant testing
in support of the development of commercial
opportunities for the technology. This
Agreement is exclusive with respect to all of
StakeTech's marketing activities in Italy.
2. PLANT AND PROCESS GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Although the plant has been designed pri-
marily on the basis of processing 175 Kg hÿ1
of wheat straw and wood chips, it is also
capable of processing a wide variety of di€er-
ent types of biomass. For design purposes, it
was assumed that the primary raw materials
would have the characteristics shown in
site, are pneumatically conveyed to a cyclone
positioned at the top of a storage bin. The
cyclone acts as a separator of the feed material
from the transport air stream.
From the cyclone the raw material falls
directly into the feed storage bin and is fed by
a screw conveyer onto a covered belt weigh
scale which provides the measure of the feed
rate. Then the material, adjusted by adding
water up to 50% of moisture (total mass ¯ow
350 kg hÿ1), is transferred by a screw conveyor
into a drop chute which leads to the
StakeTech system.
2. The StakeTech system consists of a co-
axial feeder and a digester. The feeder has a
Hopper which is situated at the bottom of the
drop chute. The biomass from the drop chute
falls, by a reversible dual screw conveyer, into
the hopper of the Co-Ax feeder. In the Co-Ax
feeder the raw material is compressed into a
plug3 which seals the pressurized digester.
Upon entering the digester, the plug is bro-
ken by a regulating choke and is immediately

Fig. 1. Flow diagram of steam explosion plant.

 The Italian steam explosion program at ENEA 291

exposed to the operating pressure and tem- Table 3. Lignin solution characteristics
perature of the digester. In the horizontal sec- Straw Wood
tion of the digester a variable speed screw
Solution 60.8 kg 78.8 kg
conveys the material towards the outlet, Moisture (%) 50 50
adjusting the speed controls the treatment Lignin (%) 31.6 37.3
time in the reactor. Hemicellulose (%) 9.0 5.7
Minerals and salts (%) 9.3 6.8
Saturated steam is added to the reactor via
a manifold located near the inlet end of the
horizontal section. Operating temperatures/ from the condensate return from the falling
pressures typically range from 2008C/1.55 ®lm evaporator at about 608C.
MPa to 2388C/3.2 MPa with dwell times vary- The resulting slurry temperature is 858C.
ing from 1 to 5 min. The pentosan stream, containing about 6% wt
At the discharge end of the digester, a cross of pentosans, from the ®rst vacuum draw
screw conveys and compacts the material in crosses a 20 mesh strainer (two in parallel), in
front of a ball valve which operates on a timer order to retain ®bres prior to the evaporator.
to allow the ``explosion'' of the product which The solution is then fed to a single e€ect verti-
goes from the operating pressure of the diges- cal tube falling-®lm evaporator which concen-
ter to ambient pressure. Typically the valve is trates the pentosans solution up to 50% wt.
set to open every 5±10 s for a duration of 0.5± The concentrated pentosan syrup is col-
1 s. lected in storage vessels for further work-up
The ``exploded material'' is collected in a and/or testing. The syrup has a texture and a
blow-down bin where a separation of vapours viscosity similar to sugarcane molasses, having
and solids occurs; the vapours are combusted the characteristics shown in Table 2.
in a gas incinerator, the solids from the bot- 4. The solids from the ®rst belt ®lter, con-
tom of the blow bin are directly conveyed, by veyed into a slurry tank, are slurried with
a reversible screw conveyer, into receiving bar- water and a caustic solution coming from the
rels when unextracted product is desired or second vacuum draw of the second belt ®lter.
can be conveyed to a slurry tank leading to The alkaline slurry at 738C is then fed to a
the extraction process. The slurry tank serves second belt ®lter for the solubilized lignin
two functions, as a storage bin for the steam extraction by adding a fresh caustic solution
exploded material during start-up and as the (30%) and then is subjected to a fresh hot
station for mixing recirculated liquors, from water (908C) wash and is neutralized by add-
the second vacuum draw, with steam exploded ing an acid solution (H2SO4 20%). The result-
material to solubilize the pentosans prior the ing solution, with a lignin content of about
extraction of the pentosans on the ®rst belt 3% wt, is stored in two tanks and later, con-
®lter. centrated up to 50% wt in the falling ®lm
3. The aqueous extraction takes place on a evaporator. The characteristics of the concen-
multi-stage counter current belt ®lter covered trated dark lignin solution are given in Table 3.
and vented to atmosphere. In the blow down The solid residue, in the ®nal section of the
bin the product is slurried with a liquor from belt ®lter, is unbleached cellulose, containing
the second vacuum draw of the belt ®lter so about 60% moisture and has a texture of
that solid content passes from 50 to 6%, then semi-re®ned wood pulp, having the character-
the slurry is pumped to the ®lter on the belt istics shown in Table 4.
where the solids travelling along the belt meet 5. Gaseous wastes and vapours, consisting
in counter current the water (858C) added for mainly of acetic acid, furfural and light sol-
pentosan extraction. The water is pumped
Table 4. Unbleached cellulose characteristics
Table 2. Pentosan syrup characteristics
Straw Wood
Straw Wood
Moist cellulose 255.7 kg 294.9 kg
Syrup 104.1 kg 60.7 kg Moisture (%) 65 65
Moisture (%) 50 50 Cellulose (%) 26.7 30.3
Hemicellulose 41.2 47.8 Hemicellulose (%) 2.1 1.5
Pentosan (in hemicell.)(%) 26.6 39.5 Lignin (%) 1.9 2.5
Ash (minerals)(%) 7.4 1.6 Protein (%) 2.2 0.5
Protein (%) 1.4 0.6 Minerals and salts (%) 2.3 0.2
292 R. AVELLA and E. SCODITTI
Fig. 2. Gaseous and solid waste treatment ¯ow diagram.
vents, are washed and/or condensed in a
scrubber (Fig. 2). The resulting aqueous sol-
ution is cooled down to 358C into a cooling
tower and recycled to the scrubber, while non
condensables are readily burnt in an incinera-
tor. The rotating incinerator is provided for
gaseous and solid wastes treatment, and is
capable of treating 160 kg hÿ1 of solids and 6
kg hÿ1 of gas from the scrubber. The combus-
tion gases are ®ltered and released to the at-
mosphere, while the ashes are stored on-site
for later disposal. Any liquid waste released
from the various plant sections are readily
subjected to an aerobic treatment and then
collected into the centralized e‚uent system in
order to satisfy the Italian regulations on
liquid wastes.
3. STEAM EXPLOSION APPLICATIONS
The strategy that ENEA is developing in
collaboration with Italian industries (either
public and private), includes essentially three
objects:
(a) recycled paper repulping and deinking;4
(b) paper pulp production5 starting from dedi-
cated feedstocks (annual and/or short ro-
tation crops);
(c) ®breboard production.
In addition ENEA, in collaboration with
other research agencies in Italy and abroad, is
carrying out research activities for Ethanol
production via enzymatic hydrolysis of the
pre-treated cellulose.
Paper consumption in Italy, has rapidly
increased from about 60 kg capÿ1 yÿ1 in 1970,
to 100 kg capÿ1 yÿ1 at present. Italy recycles
over 2,000,000 t yÿ1 of waste paper into,
mainly, corrugated cardboards, pasteboards
and thin cards.
Recently industry has developed consider-
able interest in the use of recycled paper for
graphic uses. This is a high quality application
and will require an ecient deinking process.
Additionally, the product will have to be
suitable for new printing technologies such as
the laser and ¯exographic printing. ENEA is
carrying out research to improve the deinking
process.
4. CONCLUSION
It is national policy to substitute domestic
®ber production to o€set the balance of pay-
ments de®cit in wood and pulp/paper pro-
ducts.
ENEA is investigating the use of annuals
such as sorghum, and perennials such as
kenaf, miscanthus, and short rotation woody
crops such as robinia, as novel sources of ®bre
that can be produced on land that is either
marginal or has become surplus under the
common agricultural policy of the European
Union.
Steam treatment of these materials o€ers
not only the possibility of ®bre and paper pro-
duction but also an integrated range of raw
materials that can be used extensively in the
Italian economy. A current project with
Sadepan Chimica Srl is investigating the use
of lignocellulosic wastes from the existing
industries for ®breboard production.
 The Italian steam explosion program at ENEA
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277±305.
2. Saddler J. N., Yu E. K. C., Mes-Hartree M., Levintin
N. and Brownwell H. H., The fractionation of ligno-
cellulosic substances by steam explosion and the sub-
sequent conversion of the various components to
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