Co-processing bio-oil in the refinery for drop-in biofuels via fluid catalytic cracking

摘要

Pyrolysis oil from lignocellulosic biomass (bio-oil) is a promising renewable energyrncarrier that can be utilized for the production of second-generation drop-in biofuels.rnCo-processing bio-oil with petroleum feeds in existing refinery processes, such asrnfluid catalytic cracking (FCC), has been proposed as a cost-effective way of transitioningrnto the production of such biofuels without the need for significant capitalintensiverninvestments. Several routes are available for the production of bio-oil, suchrnas fast pyrolysis of biomass (raw bio-oil), catalytic fast pyrolysis of biomass (catalyticrnpyrolysis oil, CPO), and fast pyrolysis of biomass followed by hydrogenation of thernproduced bio-oil (hydrodeoxygenated oil, HDO). Research has shown that coprocessingrnraw bio-oil is challenging but it can be carried out after adoption of appropriaternreactor modifications in the commercial scale. A significant body of work hasrnalso focused on the co-processing of HDO and CPO, and has demonstrated that theserntypes of bio-oil can be co-processed with less operational issues. Co-processing biooilrnresults in a liquid hydrocarbon product that contains only a small amount of oxygenatesrnfrom bio-oil. A noticeable increase in coke formation is also observed whenrnbio-oil is introduced in the FCC feed. However, this increase is lower than whatrnwould be expected from the conversion of the pure bio-oil fraction. This has beenrnattributed to the presence of the petroleum feed, which has a beneficial synergisticrneffect on the cracking of bio-oil due to hydrogen donation reactions that inhibit cokernformation and promote the conversion of the oxygenates to liquid hydrocarbons.rnThis article is categorized under:rnEnergy and Climate > Climate and EnvironmentrnBioenergy > Systems and InfrastructurernBioenergy > Economics and Policy