Hydrocarbon liquid production via the bioCRACK process and catalytic hydroprocessing of the product oil

Abstract

Continuous hydroprocessing of liquid phase pyrolysis Bio-oil, provided by BDI-BioEnergy International bioCRACK pilot plant at OMV Refinery in Schwechat/Vienna Austria was investigated. These hydroprocessing tests showed promising results using catalytic hydroprocessing strategies developed for unfractionated Bio-oil. A sulfided base metal catalyst (CoMo on Al₂O₃) was evaluated. The bed of catalyst was operated at 400 °C in a continuous-flow reactor at a pressure of 12.1 MPa with flowing hydrogen. The condensed liquid products were analyzed and found that the hydrocarbon liquid was significantly hydrotreated so that nitrogen and sulfur were below the level of detection (<0.05), while the residual oxygen ranged from 0.7 to 1.2%. The density of the products varied from 0.71 g mL⁻¹ up to 0.79 g mL⁻¹ with a correlated change of the hydrogen to carbon atomic ratio from 2.1 down to 1.9. The product quality remained high throughout the extended tests suggesting minimal loss of catalyst activity through the test. These tests provided the data needed to assess the quality of liquid fuel products obtained from the bioCRACK process as well as the activity of the catalyst for comparison with products obtained from hydrotreated fast pyrolysis Bio-oils from fluidized-bed operation.