Bio and Renewable Diesel & Sustainable Aviation Fuels

Biofuels are an important option for lowering CO₂ emissions in the transport sector. This has made the production of biofuels and specifically drop-in biofuels of increasing interest to the aviation, marine, rail, and trucking industries. Current biofuel production is dominated by ethanol and biodiesel (BD). However, a shift is occurring towards the production of renewable diesel (RD) because it offers multiple benefits including a net-zero CO₂ impact, the ability to be transported through pipelines in cold temperatures, the ability to be used in diesel vehicles, and potential demand from the sustainable aviation market. RD is considered to be an advanced biofuel that reduces GHG emissions ~80% while meeting the same US's ASTM D975 specification as petroleum diesel. Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is also regarded as part of the solution for the aviation industry in reducing emissions (~80% lower GHG emissions compared to conventional jet fuel) thereby meeting climate goals.

Driven by current bio- and renewable fuel mandates, the study consists of state-of-the-art technologies and recent research efforts in following the evolution in production of biodiesel and RD and SAF.

How it will benefit you

The benefits of the current study are to help refiners assess the latest technology developments and industrywide trends in production of non-fossil diesel and jet fuel. It also enables refiners to make better strategic decisions of their biofuel operations and projects in compliance with governmental mandates, sourcing biofeeds from various supplies, and co-processing with conventional crudes. The recent innovations enable refiners to meet direct GHG emission (or called Scope 1) target.

What does it include

The study begins with a survey of biofuels mandates and regulatory incentives for biofuels production, supply and demand data and future forecasts, feedstock challenges and opportunities, and refinery integration and the coprocessing of lipids and bio-oils with petroleum feeds. Recent innovations feature the new offerings by Air Liquide E&C (Lurgi Biodiesel technology); Axens (Vegan technology); Chevron Lummus Global (Biofuels ISOCONVERSION (BIC) process from for the production of renewable diesel (ReadiDiesel) and jet fuel (ReadiJet)); Envergent Technologies (Rapid Thermal Processing (RTP) for the production of pyrolysis oil that can be co-processed in an FCCU or upgrading via hydroprocessing); Fulcrum BioEnergy (thermochemical process for the conversion of municipal solid waste to syncrude and renewable diesel and SAF); Inventure Renewables (Supercritical biodiesel production); Haldor Topsoe (HydroFlex technology); Honeywell UOP (single-stage version of Ecofining process, UOP Renewable Jet Fuel Process for the production of Honeywell Green Diesel and Honeywell Green Jet Fuel); LanzaJet; (Alcohol-to-jet process); Neste (NEXBTL process for Neste MY Renewable Diesel production);Renewable Energy Group (BioSynfining process); Shell Catalysts & Technologies (Integrated Hydropyrolysis and Hydroconversion (IH2) and Shell Renewable Refining Processes); and Velocys (fully integrated technology package for the conversion of domestic refuse and woody waste into synthetic paraffinic kerosene (SPK) and road transportation fuels.

To monitor future directions, the study also reviews recent biofuels production patent and research paper works focused on the conversion of biomass and lipid feedstocks using refining processes, thermochemical technologies, and combinations of both; bio-oil conversion; and the co-processing of biomass and lipids with petroleum feeds.

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