Key Points
• Bio-oils and Bio-crudes are energy carriers that can be used as raw material for advanced biofuels
• They need to be upgraded for applications as a (drop-in) transportation fuel
• Upgrading can be via co-processing in existing refineries or by stand-alone operation
• Biofuel applications covers multiple sectors including road, aviation and shipping.
Biofuels from Direct Thermochemical Liquefaction
Biofuels from Bio-oils and Bio-crudes are becoming a reality, and a potential source for wide spectrum of new biofuels. However, most hydrocarbon fuel applications can only use bio-oils and bio-crudes once the oils have been chemically or physically modified in a process generally referred to as “upgrading”.
Current frontrunner is the co-FCC of pyrolysis oil, which is now entering the market. Swedish company Pyrocell –a joint venture of Setra and Preem- is implementing a full-scale fast pyrolysis plant, and the untreated pyrolysis oil (24 kton/a) will be co-fed with VGO (vacuum gas oil) at the FCC unit of Preem in Lysekil (Sweden). The products from pyrolysis oil will be distributed over the different products of a FCC (gasoline, LCO, char, gas etc). Construction is on-going and start of operation is expected in 2021. A similar activity was announced by Envergent/UOP in the US.
Other processes under development include e.g. hydrotreatment, esterification, cracking and blending. An alternative approach is to produce syngas from pyrolysis oil followed by a biofuel synthesis process (e.g. methanol, gasoline, Fischer-Tropsch, ect). With respect to HTL biocrude the hydrotreatment route is predominantly considered.
• Co-processing: new xxxxxx (Petrobras ref https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378382014004755 )
• Hydrotreatment: https://task34.ieabioenergy.com/hydroprocessing/
• Synfuels to reformulate the bio-crude and bio-oils molecular structure into specific fuels https://task34.ieabioenergy.com/synfuels/
• Blends to insert bio-crudes and bio-oils into existing applications by dilution https://task34.ieabioenergy.com/blends/
• Esterification to form compounds with diesel-like properties https://task34.ieabioenergy.com/esterification/
• Cracking using catalysis to reduce oxygen content and adjust molecular weight https://task34.ieabioenergy.com/cracking/
• Electrochemistry? : new ..
• ? hydrogen
Further Reading
• PyNe 43 (link): Karatzos on drop-in diesel from HTL
• PyNe 40: Elliott on hydoprocessed biofuels
• PyNe 39: Magrini-Bair on fuels from catalytic pyrolysis
• PyNe 36: Zacher on co-processing in a DCR pilot plant
• PyNe 35: Kai Toven on marine biofuel blends
• PyNe 33 (link): Venderbosch on the production of diesel from pyrolysis oil
Example Applications
• Envergent: Transportation fuels
• Preem/Setra: co-FCC of pyrolysis oil to transportation fuels
• BTG-BTL: co-FCC pyrolysis oil
• Petrobras: Catalytic Cracking Demonstration Unit,SIX – São Mateus do Sul