(137a) Catalytic Conversion Wood Syngas to ‘Wide Cut' Diesel Over A Multifunctional Catalyst

A continuous process involving gasification, syngas cleaning, and Fischer–Tropsch (FT) synthesis was developed to efficiently produce ‘wide cut’ diesel. Oak-tree wood chips were first gasified to syngas over a commercial pilot plant downdraft gasifier. The raw wood syngas contains about 47% N₂, 21% CO, 18% H_2, 12% CO_2, 2% CH₄ and trace amounts of impurities. A purification reaction system was designed to remove the impurities in the syngas such as moisture, oxygen, sulfur, ammonia, and tar. The purified syngas meets the requirements for catalytic conversion to liquid fuels. A multi-functional catalyst was developed and tested for the catalytic conversion of wood syngas to diesel. It was demonstrated that liquid fuels similar to commercial diesel was successfully synthesized from bio-syngas.