Operation Pilot Plants

The operation of pilot plants is essential in order to transfer the scientific results and experience gained in small laboratory or technology center plants to industrial scale and thus to industrial application. Pilot plants are industry-oriented test plants with a thermal power in the single-digit megawatt range and a Technological Readiness Level (TRL) of around 5-6 out of a maximum of 10.

For this purpose, our pilot plants are operated in several test campaigns per year around the clock (24/7) for one to six weeks each in a 3 or 4-shift system. Our operating team with a broad range of expertise not only enables shift operation of the pilot plants, but is also responsible for their maintenance, upgrades, conversions and extensions.

We have been working successfully with our internal and external project partners from industry and research for many years. The successes and our contribution to the energy transition are visible in projects such as bioliq^® and reFuels. 

In order to expand the range of biomass-based waste materials to include mixed plastic waste, the plants and their accompanying research will be reoriented towards the Carbon Cycle Lab (CCLab) in the coming years. The CCLab is based on our extensive experience with the bioliq^® plants, which were operated at TRL 6 level until the end of 2024, as well as with the waste and intermediate products generated and their storage. The new elements of scalable plastic pyrolysis, flexible biomass pyrolysis and hydrogenation of intermediates make the CCLab flexible at TRL 4-5 level and can be coupled with other elements of the Energy Lab.

The work is being carried out as part of the Helmholtz-funded MTET (Materials and Technologies for the Energy Transition) program in the subtopic Anthropogenic Carbon Cycle, Topic 5 (Resource and Energy Efficiency).