Hydroconversion of Renewable Lipids into Biojet and Biodiesel

The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) in the US continues to evolve and shape the transportation fuel landscape. The 10% ethanol “blend wall” and increasing biofuel blending mandates have increased the incentive to produce second-generation biojet and biodiesel sourced from the natural lipids present in vegetable oils and fats. In response to these conditions, Axens has developed the advanced Vegan® hydroprocessing technology, which extends decades of petroleum fuel production knowledge to the next generation of biofuel production.

Vegan® is a flexible, two-step process that can produce summer or winter grade diesel, as well as kerosene/jet from a very wide range of renewable feedstocks. This flexibility opens new horizons of development for true drop-in alternatives to conventional road and air transportation fuels.

The presentation will highlight the main features of the technology including yields, product qualities, process flexibility, and processing schemes. Axens will also focus on the commercialization of the process and integration into existing infrastructure.

The first industrial scale Vegan facility has been awarded in 2015 by the Total La Mède biorefinery project slated to produce 500,000 tpy of renewable diesel from various vegetable oil sources. Start-up is expected in the early 2018.