HIGH QUALITY TRANSPORTATION FUELS FROM RENEWABLE FEEDSTOCK

摘要

Hydrotreating of vegetable oils is an advanced process for producing high quality renewable diesel fuels. Hydrotreated vegetable oils (HVO) are paraffinic hydrocarbons similar to gas-to-liquids (GTL) and biomass-to-liquids (BTL) diesel fuels. They are free of aromatics and sulfur and have high cetane numbers. HVO is known as Renewable Diesel (RD) in the United States.HVO can be used as blending component in diesel fuel or as pure fuel. When used as fuel on its own, significant reductions in NO_X and paniculate emissions can be seen. Thus, HVO is very suitable as diesel fuel for urban traffic like city buses. HVO processes can also be modified to produce jet fuel. Greenhouse gas (GHG) savings by HVO use are significant compared to fossil fuels.HVO is already in commercial scale production. Neste Oil is producing its renewable diesel, NExBTL? in two production plants. The emission performance and vehicle compatibility has been verified with extensive fleet tests and measurements. Production of renewable fuels will be limited by the availability of sustainable feedstock. Therefore research and development efforts are made to expand the feedstock base further. Additional technological routes for processing biomass into high quality transportation fuels will also be needed in order to meet future demand.