Patent ID: 8350102

Claim:
A process for the direct conversion of lipidic biomass to a transportation fuel, said process comprising: (A) performing thermal hydrolysis on a lipidic biomass to form a product stream comprising a free fatty acid and form a by-product stream comprising glycerol; (B) performing catalytic deoxygenation on the free fatty acid stream by one or both of a decarboxylation reaction pathway or a decarbonylation reaction pathway by heating the free fatty acid stream in the presence of a catalyst to form a product stream comprising an n-alkane; and (C) performing one or more reforming steps on the n-alkane stream to form a product stream comprising a mixture of hydrocarbon compounds selected from the group consisting of n-alkanes, isoalkanes, aromatics, and cycloalkanes; wherein, after step (C), the hydrocarbon compounds in the product stream are in a combination and ratio necessary to form an overall composition useful as the transportation fuel.