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ConocoPhillips and ADM Partner to Develop Renewable Transportation Fuels from Biocrude
27 September 2007
ConocoPhillips and Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) will collaborate on the development of renewable transportation fuels from biomass.
The alliance will research and seek to commercialize two components of a next-generation biofuel production process: the conversion of biomass from crops, wood or switchgrass into biocrude, a non-fossil substance that can be processed into fuel; and the refining of biocrude to produce transportation fuel.
We are hopeful that this collaboration will provide innovative technology toward the large-scale production of biofuels that can be moved efficiently and affordably through existing infrastructure.
—Jim Mulva, Chairman and CEO, ConocoPhillips
There are two primary pathways for the thermal conversion of biomass to transportation fuels that are chemically similar to existing petroleum-derived gasoline or diesel, and not discrete products such as ethanol or biodiesel (fatty acid methyl esters). One is gasification, which produces a syngas that then feeds a Fischer-Tropsch conversion process to produce fuels and chemicals, or is converted to methanol for subsequent processing.
| Typical Bio-oil Properties | |
|---|---|
| Moisture content | 25% |
| pH | 2.5 |
| Specific gravity | 1.20 |
| Carbon (C) | 56.4% |
| Hydrogen (H) | 6.2% |
| Oxygen (O) | 37.3% |
| Nitrogen (N) | 0.1% |
| Ash | 0.1% |
| HHV as made | 17 MJ/kg |
| Solids (char) | 0.25% |
| Vacuum dist. residue | up to 50% |
The other is fast pyrolysis, which uses heat in the absence of oxygen to decompose biomass into a liquid product: bio-oil or bio-crude. Fast pyrolysis operates at atmospheric pressure and modest temperatures (450° C). Yields of the pyrolysis liquid (bio-oil)—a low viscosity, dark-brown fluid with up to 15 to 20% water—can exceed 70-wt%. The pyrolysis liquid can then be further directly refined to conventional gasoline or diesel fuels. (Bio-oil, which is easily transportable, can also be used as feedstock for gasification.)
While the pyrolysis-direct refining pathway is less efficient than biomass gasification and F-T processing (Biomass-to-Liquids), it is also lower in cost, and can scale up to a large system. Transportation of the liquid bio-oil produced at multiple sites to a refinery is more cost-effective than shipping massive quantities of biomass for gasification.
Earlier this year, ConocoPhillips established an eight-year, $22.5 million research program at Iowa State University dedicated to developing technologies that produce biorenewable fuels. The company is particularly interested in work there on converting biomass to fuel through fast pyrolysis. (Earlier post.)
Although conventional bio-oils are not miscible with hydrocarbon fuels, earlier this year researchers at the University of Georgia developed an enhanced pyrolysis-derived bio-oil from pine wood chips that can be blended with biodiesel and petroleum diesel to power conventional engines. (Earlier post.)
 |
| ConocoPhillips renewable diesel chemistry. Click to enlarge. |
Renewable diesel. ConocoPhillips’ focus on developing a process for renewable hydrocarbon fuels from biomass is in synch with its development of renewable diesel through the hydrotreating of fats or oils in a refinery. (Earlier post.)
Conventionally, a diesel hydrotreater upgrades the output of crude distillation—straight run diesel, cycle oil, etc—using hydrogen in a high-pressure, high-temperature catalytic process through which the hydrogen replaces the sulfur in the fuel. The renewable diesel processes put renewable oils and fats directly into the hydrotreater stream.
The ConocoPhillips process—and other hydrotreated oil and fats processes, such as that being developed by Neste Oil—converts oils and fats to traditional, all-hydrocarbon diesel fuel with a bit more clean-burning parrafinic content and reduced aromatic content.
The typical renewable diesel is highly parrafinic—C13 to C18—with no oxygen and no double bonds. The renewable diesel is in the heart of the diesel fuel range (C10 to C22), it is high cetane, and it is feedstock independent. There are no new molecules in the fuel not already present in conventional petroleum-derived diesel, and it meets D975 specifications.
The glycerin in the oils or fats is converted directly to propane, while the oxygen is converted to H2O or CO2; there is no glycerin byproduct.
Resources:
Renewable Diesel (ConocoPhillips, DEER 2007)
September 27, 2007 in Biomass, Fuels | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)
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Comments
From an energy security perspective, hydrogenation of pyrolysis liquids from waste biomass strikes me as a far better use of hydrogen than FCVs will ever be. Acids of sulfur and phosphorus are the main reason why biocrude is so sour. As for feedstock, just about anything that's not too wet will do. This eliminates the food vs. fuel issue, because for the first time, you exploit the whole crop. They don't cal it crude for nothing but pyrolysis process technology can be scaled up more economically than what you need for cellulosic ethanol. Besides, in due course petrochemical engineers will figure out how to optimize yields and post-processing into fuels and other products.
Biocrude ought to be a technology of high interest in Europe, but I don't get the impression that it is. At least not yet.
Posted by: Rafael Seidl | Sep 27, 2007 9:08:05 AM
Fischer Tropsch.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/07/19/the_return_of_nazi_oil.php
One hair's breath away from Coal-to-Liquids.
Posted by: GreyFlcn | Sep 27, 2007 10:45:13 AM
Although I guess technically this is Thermal Depolymerization.
Not much difference on inputs/outputs, though.
Posted by: GreyFlcn | Sep 27, 2007 11:27:01 AM
I'm not sure if there are any breakthroughs here. My understanding is that pyrolysis oil contains water (the bugbear of ethanol processing) and unburnable components. Blending it with good quality fuel may undo all the gains made so far in emissions standards.
As far as hydrogenation is concerned it still requires lipids (fat) which will be in short supply in a climate changed heavily populated world. The hydrogen from an external source (unlike FT) will have its own fossil fuel requirements and energy penalty.
Posted by: Aussie | Sep 27, 2007 11:47:27 AM
Bio-crude is a good idea for transportation of biomass energy, but gasification of bio-crude will be the easiest and least polluting way to produce transportation fuel, into H2 and/or CH4.
Since waste biomass energy will not be sufficient, we will eventually need to synthesize H2 and CH4 and may be NH3 also from solar and wind energy, and that's where the importance of H2-vehicles will come into play.
Once the H2 infrastructure is set up, virtually any source of energy can be readily used for transportation in the least polluting and most efficient manner.
Posted by: Roger Pham | Sep 28, 2007 10:32:41 AM
With millions of plantation pines, we need this technology to come into the "main stream".
Posted by: Henry Maclin | Oct 7, 2007 9:41:36 PM
