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Who are we?

ABSL develops and owns plants, licenses technology and provides engineering services to projects specialising in the production of advanced biofuels.

We are the owner of the RadGas technology which offers very high efficiency, reliable syngas production from waste and biomass residues. In addition, we provide design and consultancy services to engineering contractors, developers and owners of advanced biofuel facilities.

We own and operate the world’s first plant to convert household waste into bio-substitute natural gas (BioSNG). The facility, located in Swindon, UK, converts 8,000 tonnes of waste into 22GWh of gas each year.

ABSL believes that wastes should be converted to fuels such as biomethane, biohydrogen or sustainable aviation fuel to decarbonise heat and transport. Our solutions allow the carbon dioxide in waste to be captured so that it can be sequestrated. This creates negative carbon emissions essential for the world to meet its two-degree global warming target.

ABSL was established in March 2019 by commercial and technical experts in the advanced biofuel sector. We are a private company backed by investment funds and high net worth individuals.

What do we do?

ABSL operates in the following areas:

  • Developing, owning and operating advanced biofuel plants
  • Licensing the RadGas technology
  • Providing engineering design and consultancy

Project Development

ABSL understands the challenges of developing advanced biofuel projects. Building a robust business case, agreeing off-take agreements, securing a contractor willing to provide appropriate guarantees and raising finance are all difficult in a developing sector.

We develop relationships with all the stakeholders that are required to move projects from concept to financial close. Our experience from the BioSNG plant has taught us what it takes to bring a vision to life. We support good quality projects with a solid business case.

Engineering Design and Consultancy

The ABSL team have more than twenty years of combined experience solving the  challenges of converting waste and biomass residues into biofuels. Our areas of expertise include:

  • Characterising wastes and understanding how those characteristics will vary over time
  • Waste and biomass storage and transport
  • Gasification and pyrolysis
  • Tar reformation
  • Syngas cleaning
  • Catalytic conversion of syngas into hydrogen, BioSNG, liquid fuels and propane

We will work with engineering contractors, developers and owners in the following areas:

  • Business case development
  • Planning and permitting applications
  • Overall advanced biofuel system design
  • Gasification and tar reformation system design

ABSL takes a collaborative approach to working with our partners to ensure that we have a good understanding of their requirements and focus our attention on solving their problems.

Our team has worked for major international energy corporations, large engineering consultants and speciality chemical companies.

Licensing of RadGas Technology

The RadGas technology offers reliable, high efficiency conversion of waste and biomass residues into a clean syngas that is free of tars and particulates. The syngas is suitable for conversion into fuels such as hydrogen, methane, dimethyl ether, kerosene or diesel.

ABSL welcomes discussions on licensing RadGas to individual projects.

Licences would incorporate engineering support for the technology and access to the extensive know-how developed through our experience on the Swindon commercial demonstration plant. Our plant provides a platform for training operations and maintenance teams.

The ABSL team have more than twenty years of combined experience solving the challenges of converting waste and biomass residues into biofuels.

Biohydrogen

Biohydrogen is a low carbon fuel that does not generate any carbon emissions when it is used. The RadGas process delivers hydrogen at a lower price than competing technologies with far greater greenhouse gas savings.

Hydrogen is seen as the fuel of the future for sectors that cannot convert to electricity such as industrial high heat applications or heavy goods transport. Organisations such as Shell, BP and Air Products are investing heavily in hydrogen technology.

Low carbon hydrogen can be produced by the following processes:

  • Green Hydrogen is made by the electrolysis of water using renewable electricity.
  • Blue hydrogen is made by reforming natural gas and sequestering the carbon dioxide produced in long term geological storage.
  • Biohydrogen is made by reforming wastes and residues.

Each of these technologies have their own strengths and weaknesses and each will play a role in decarbonising the energy sector. The key advantages of biohydrogen are:

  • Greenhouse gas emissions associated with biohydrogen are low. When biohydrogen is combined with carbon storage it generates significant negative emissions.
  • Using fossil natural gas as a reference, GHG savings from biohydrogen can be three times greater than savings from green or blue hydrogen.
  • Biohydrogen produced from wastes has a lower cost than blue hydrogen, which requires fossil fuel feedstocks, and green hydrogen, which has high capital costs.
  • Biohydrogen production is constant across the year while green hydrogen production is intermittent, driven by the availability of renewable electricity.
  • Biohydrogen is sustainable, renewable and forms part of the circular economy.
  • Biohydrogen can be produced at relatively small scales to match demand as the market develops.
  • Biohydrogen can be produced close to hydrogen consumers, avoiding expensive transport costs.

ABSL will demonstrate the production of biohydrogen at the Swindon plant. The facility can switch between biohydrogen and BioSNG production on demand. This flexibility will allow the plant to supply hydrogen projects as the market develops.

Governments across the world are putting policies in place to encourage the production and consumption of hydrogen for heat and transport. Future commercial RadGas plants are likely to focus on biohydrogen production to meet this demand.