Production of BHD (Bio Hydrofined Diesel) with Improved Cold Flow Properties

摘要

With its potential benefits of primary energy diversification and CO2 reduction, there is growing interest in using Biomass Fuels for transportation. FAME (Fatty Acid Methyl Ester), obtained from fats and oil such as vegetable oil using a transesterification reaction with methanol, is recently becoming popular as a bio-diesel. As FAME contains unsaturated carbon-carbon bonds from the feed materials, its storage stability is an issue. There are also other points of concern, namely, poor cold flow properties and FAME'S effects on car components. In this current situation, technologies to produce high quality fuels from renewable sources, especially from vegetable oils, using petroleum refinery processes should be promising. We previously managed to obtain BHD (Bio Hydrofined Diesel), a hydrocarbon nearly identical to conventional diesel oil, by hydrogenating palm oil. However, poor cold flow properties were still an issue. We have now improved the cold flow properties of BHD, using hydroisomerization technologies. In this paper, we present our study of hydroisomerization technologies, covering reactivity, distillate yields, evaluation of the obtained fuel, and its applicability as an automotive fuel.