Patent ID: 8193402

Claim:
A process for preparing renewable hydrocarbons comprising: (a) treating biomass to form a feedstock; (b) fermenting the feedstock with one or more species of microorganism, thereby forming one or more C 2 -C 6 alcohols; (c) dehydrating at least a portion of the one or more C 2 -C 6 alcohols obtained in step (b), thereby forming a product comprising one or more C 2 -C 6 olefins; (d) isolating the one or more C 2 -C 6 olefins; (e) oligomerizing at least a portion of the one or more C 2 -C 6 olefins isolated in step (d), thereby forming a product comprising one or more C 6 -C 24 unsaturated oligomers; and (f) hydrogenating at least a portion of the product of step (e) in the presence of hydrogen, thereby forming a product comprising one or more C 6 -C 24 saturated alkanes; whereby the product of step (f) itself meets the requirements of at least one of ASTM D4814, ASTM D975, ASTM D910, or ASTM D1655, or a blend of at least 10% of the product of step (f) with a mixture of hydrocarbons meets the requirements of at least one of ASTM D4814, ASTM D975, ASTM D910 or ASTM D1655.