Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Technical Review Vol. 53 No. 4 (December 2016)
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Development of Jet Fuel Production Systemfrom Woody Biomass

TAKASHI YAMAMOTO*1

ATSUSHI FUJII*2

MASASHI HISHIDA*3

KATSUHIKO SHINODA*4

BTL (Biomass to Liquid) is a technology for synthesizing biomass into liquid fuel that has
been attracting attention as a method to produce clean and environmentally-friendly fuel. Throughthis research and development, a partial oxidation-type entrained bed biomass gasifier suitable forscaling up for future mass production was developed. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) also
implemented integration test of a biomass gasification and FT (Fischer-Tropsch) synthesis that
actually combined the developed biomass gasifier with a highly selective Anti-ASF-type FT
synthesis catalyst/process to verify the realizability of a system for producing bio jet fuel fromvarious types of woody biomass.

|1. Introduction
For the practical application of BTL (Biomass to Liquid), the optimization of the entire
process is required. On this occasion, we carried out research and development for a highvalue-added total bio jet fuel production system in cooperation with the University of Toyama,
which has achievements in the research and development of a liquid fuel synthesis catalyst.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and International Air Transport
Association (IATA) have been working on the reduction of CO2 emissions from aircraft and aim to
set an upper limit for CO2 emissions in 2020. To achieve this goal, the introduction of bio fuel isessential.
One of the widely-known liquid bio fuels is alcohol fuel such as bio ethanol. However, theheat value per unit mass of alcohol fuel is small and it is not suitable for jet fuel (aviation fuel).
Accordingly, the use of animal and vegetable oils or BTL with FT (Fischer-Tropsch) synthesis isunder consideration for bio jet fuel. To realize the use of animal and vegetable oils, projects for thedevelopment of bio jet fuel originating from algae are progressing. However, there are various
issues for supply in a large amount such as large-scale cultivation and enhancement in theefficiency of the refining process. On the other hand, jet fuel production with BTL is easy to scaleup, and thus is expected to be a production technology that enables mass production in response toincreased demand.

|2. Development of bio jet fuel production process
Figure 1 shows a bio jet fuel production process using FT synthesis. Woody biomass in apulverized state is put into the gasifier and then becomes syngas consisting mainly of H2 and CO.
The gas generated in the gasifier is supplied through cooling and clean up processes to the liquid
fuel synthesis process. Before being supplied to the synthesis process, the gas is pressurized fromnormal pressure by the pressure boosting device, so that the partial pressure of H2 and CO becomeshigh in order to accelerate the FT synthesis reaction. CO2, which does not contribute to the*1

Chief Staff Manager, Heat Transfer Research Department, Research & Innovation Center*2

Heat Transfer Research Department, Research & Innovation Center*3General Manager, Boiler Technology Development Department, Boiler Products Headquarters, Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems,Ltd.

*4

Senior Manager, Boiler Technology Development Department, Boiler Products Headquarters, Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems,Ltd.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Technical Review Vol. 53 No. 4 (December 2016)
100reaction, is recovered by decarbonation after pressurization. Hydrogen is then added to thehydrocarbon generated by FT synthesis. Through the isomerization process that generates
isoparaffin and the distillation process, products such as light oil, jet fuel, and wax are recovered.

Figure 1

2.1

Bio jet fuel production process

Development of biomass gasifier

For the biomass gasification process, an entrained bed gasifier is adopted. The entrained bed
gasifier is suitable for synthesizing bio fuel because the size is relatively compact and the capacity
can be easily enhanced due to high-speed gasification, and the amount of tar generated can bereduced by high-temperature gasification.
The gasifier has a structure where the shape is changed gradually as shown in Figure 2, andthe cross section area of the lower part of the gasifier is smaller than that of the upper part. As aresult of this shape, the gas ascending flow speed (superficial velocity) is high at the lower part andlow at the upper part. Figure 2 collectively shows the biomass particle behavior in the gasifier
estimated by CFD. At the lower part of the gasifier, the gas flow speed is high and thus large
particles are prevented from falling down to the bottom, while at the higher part of the gasifier, thegas flow speed is low and thus characteristically, only small particles accompany the gas flow.
Unreacted large particles and raw materials that take time to completely react circulate and stay inthe gasifier until the completion of the reaction, and are discharged after a sufficient decrease in
their size. Therefore, a high carbon conversion rate can be obtained for biomass raw materials withvarious characteristics.
Figure 3 shows the carbon conversion rate of various biomass raw materials in large particle.
A carbon conversion rate as high as 95% or higher is attained regardless of the material types andthe operational conditions of the gasifier (O2/C).

Figure 2

Biomass particle behavior in a gasifierMitsubishi Heavy Industries Technical Review Vol. 53 No. 4 (December 2016)
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Figure 3 Carbon conversion rate of various types of biomass

2.2

Development of FT synthesis catalyst/process

FT synthesis is a polymerization reaction of carbene (CH2) and the obtained hydrocarbon has
a mountain-like distribution in which the maximum value exists in the vicinity of C6-C8 according
to the ASF (Anderson Schultz Flory) rule. The main fraction of jet fuel is C8-C16, and therefore
maximizing the selectivity requires breaking the ASF distribution. Professor Tsubaki of theUniversity of Toyama et al.(2), collaborators in this project, developed the world's first FT synthesis
catalyst/process that realizes Anti-ASF distribution by adding a small amount of 1-olefin to the raw
material synthesis gas and the use of a catalyst with even higher selectivity.

2.3

Biomass gasification and FT synthesis integration test

We combined the gasifier and the FT synthesis catalyst/process that were developed throughthis research to implement a biomass gasification and FT synthesis integration test. The biomass
gasification and FT synthesis integration test was performed four times in total in fiscal 2012 to2015 using the biomass gasification and FT synthesis test facility (Figure 4 and Table 1) installedat MHI Research & Innovation Center (Nagasaki District).
Figure 5 shows an example of FT synthesis oil and its carbon number distribution obtainedin the integration test. Through this process, a high yield (approximately 70%) of jet fuel fraction(C8-C16) was confirmed. In addition, gasification and FT synthesis integration operation using
actual gas for approximately 100 hours was performed, and it was confirmed that there was nodeterioration tendency of the catalyst performance.

Figure 4 Biomass gasification and FT
synthesis integration test facility
Table 1Figure 5 Carbon number distributionof FT synthesis oil

Specifications of biomass gasification and FT synthesis integration test facility

Gasifier
FT synthesizing equipment

Biomass processing
amount of capacity
MethodGasification agent
Method240 kg/day
Entrained bed
Oxygen and steam
Slurry bed catalyst method

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2.4

Consideration of bio jet fuel production process

By reflecting the results of the aforementioned research and development, we established abio jet fuel production process model including an FT synthesis oil refining system using a processsimulator, and evaluated the material balance on a verification scale (biomass processing
amounting to 20 tons per a day). Figure 6 shows the heat balance of the process (based on the input
biomass chemical heat). This process converts 37% of the biomass heat value into bio fuel (jet fuel,wax and light oil). Moreover, when off-gas (consisting mainly of CH4 and CO) is utilized
effectively, 55% of the biomass heat value can be recovered.

Figure 6

Bio jet fuel production process

Heat balance|3. Conclusion
MHI and Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Ltd. have been working on the development ofa technology for producing liquid fuel from biomass (BTL) as a technology for the production of
third-generation bio fuel that does not compete with food production. On this occasion, therealizability of the technology for producing jet fuel from woody bio mass was confirmed by anintegration test that combined a gasification process and an FT synthesis process.
It is expected that the securement of alternative bio aviation fuel will be important,particularly in 2020 and later. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry organized the“Committee for the Study of a Process Leading to Introduction of Bio Jet Fuel for the 2020
Summer Olympic Games and Paralympic Games in Tokyo” and the momentum toward theintroduction of made-in-Japan bio fuel has been accelerated.
This paper is based on results obtained from a project commissioned by the New Energy andIndustrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).

References1.
2.

Hishida, M. et al., Biomass Syngas Production Technology by Gasification for Liquid Fuel and Other
Chemicals, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Technical Review Vol. 48 No. 3 (2011) p41～45
Tsubaki, N. et al., Anti-ASF Distribution of Fischer-Tropsch Hydrocarbons in Supercritical Phase
Reaction, J. Catalysis, Vol.207, (2002), pp. 37-41