Upgraded Pyrolysis Bio-oil as Alternative Renewable Supply in Classical Petroleum Refinery Processes
Creators: name: Manara, Panagiota
name: Dimitriadis, Athanasios
name: Meletidis, George
name: Pfisterer, Ulrich
name: Bezergianni, Stella
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: bio-oil
hydrotreating
hybrid fuels
biofuels

description: The production of renewable liquid fuels for transport has attracted international research and market<br> interest in line with the ambitious 2020 and 2030 energy and climate targets set by the European Union (EU)<br> policy, considering the increasing global demand for their fossil counterparts and the resulting environmental<br> impact. Toward this direction, the utilization of non-food/feed biomass is promoted, while the most<br> promising bio-chemical and thermo-chemical value chains for biofuels production have been prioritized by<br> the European Industrial Bioenergy Initiative (EIBI), launched under the Strategic Energy Technology (SET)<br> Plan, listing pyrolysis among them.<br> In this frame, the study investigates refinery-compatible entry points to directly co-feed bio-based refinery<br> intermediates and further co-process them in existing petroleum crude oil refineries. The studied pyrolysis<br> bio-oil has been produced via ablative fast pyrolysis and upgraded via mild hydrotreatment (HDT) in order to<br> fulfill refineries’ specifications and become a “drop-in” biofuel in compatible refinery “location”. The<br> properties of HDT-Bio-oil as well as fossil-based refinery intermediates were compared, and five fossil-based<br> refinery intermediates have been concluded as potential candidates for co-processing. The analysis was<br> based on mapping several petroleum fractions’ quality properties (i.e., boiling curve, gravity/density, overall<br> elemental composition, viscosity, surface tension) within a conventional refinery. Based on the comparative<br> assessment, the following refinery streams have been identified as potential candidates for co-processing<br> with HDT-Bio-oil: Straight Run Distillate Diesel (SRGO), Atmospheric Gasoil (GASOIL), Light cycle oil (FCC LCO),<br> Heavy cycle oil (FCC HCO) and Light vacuum gas oil (LVGO). Furthermore, the miscibility of the<br> aforementioned renewable and conventional fuel intermediates has been investigated via light microscopy.<br> In particular, the five mixtures of bio-oil/refinery intermediates were observed under Nikon ECLIPSE TE2000-<br> S optical microscope. Among all refinery streams, Fluid Catalytic Cracking Light Cycle Oil (FCC LCO) and<br> secondly Light Vacuum Gas Oil (LVGO) have been concluded to be the most promising candidates for coprocessing,<br> resembling HDT-Bio-oil’s properties. The study is part of the “BioMates” Horizon2020 research<br> and innovation EU project, aspiring in combining innovative 2<sup>nd</sup> generation biomass conversion technologies<br> for the cost-effective production of reliable bio-based intermediates that can be further upgraded in existing<br> oil refineries as renewable and reliable co-feedstocks. Therefore, the current miscibility study acts as a prescreening<br> of candidate feedstocks for the targeted hydroprocessing study that will follow.