(236f) Renewable Hydrocarbon Production from Catalytic Upgrading of Fast Pyrolysis Bio-Oil from a Feedstock Blend

Production of renewable fuel blendstock from catalytic hydroprocessing of fast pyrolysis oil has been considered as one of the promising thermochemical conversion pathways of biomass to renewable fuel. However, this technology requires overcoming technical and economic barriers for it to be considered competitive with petroleum-derived fuels. The use of low-cost, blended feedstocks in place of a single source of biomass is one way to reduce the overall process costs. In this presentation, we report the catalytic upgrading of a fast pyrolysis bio-oil derived from a mix of clean pine, forest residue and demolition waste. Due to the thermal instability of the bio-oil, it was pretreated in the presence of Ru/C catalyst using a continuous flow reactor (400 ml) with nominal bio-oil space velocity of 0.25-0.5 h^-1 and 500-1000 L H₂/L bio-oil and operated at 140°C and 1200 psig. Further catalytic hydrodeoxygenation and hydrocracking reactions were accomplished in a two-bed continuous flow reactor consisting of a sulfided Ru/C catalyst held at 170°C, followed by a sulfided commercial hydrotreating/hydrocracking catalyst held nominally at 400°C. The operating pressure was set at 2000 psig, with 0.1 h^-1 bio-oil space velocity and 2500 L H₂/L bio-oil. The two-phase product was subsequently separated, with the organic phase (less than 3 wt% oxygen) distilled in a batch set-up into gasoline (20-184°C), diesel (184°C-338°C), jet (150°-250°C) and heavy (>338°C) fractions. Characterization of these fractions will be presented.