Co-processing in FCC units: Catalytic co-cracking of hydrocarbons and oxygenated biomass compounds

FUEL 67

Yves Schuurman, yves.schuurman@ircelyon.univ-lyon1.fr, Marcelo, E Domine, André, C. Van Veen, and Claude Mirodatos. Department of Chemical Engineering, Institut de Recherches sur la Catalyse et l'Environnement de Lyon, 2 avenue Albert Einstein, Villeurbanne Cedex, 69626, France
Biomass attracted recently attention as a potential energy source for the production of transportation fuels. The fast pyrolysis of biomass produces a condensate, called bio-oil, which is a complex mixture of a wide range of oxygenated compounds. This bio-oil could serve as renewable feedstock for bio-fuel production by suitable refinery co-processing when solving polymerisation issues. However, necessary adaptations of large-scale refinery units yielding automotive fuels are delicate. It should exclude a disturbance of the large-scale processing scheme and require co-processing of bio-oils to proceed at lower cost than dedicated biomass-processing units. Our study focuses on the co-feeding of hydrocarbon and oxygenated compound mixtures into a catalytic reactor simulating the FCC reaction conditions in the range of 450-530°C. Oxygenated compounds (acetone, acetic acid, i-propanol) representative for the bio-oil composition and model hydrocarbons (i-octane) are used as feed. The cracking reaction is evaluated in terms of conversion, product distribution, and catalyst stability.