FUEL 63

If we were to take the environmentally undesirable components out of petroleum diesel and jet fuels, we would be left with an isoparaffinic composition. This is the fuel produced from the biomass-to-liquids (BTL) process. BTL involves (1) gasification of biomass, (2)conversion of the resulting syngas to an oily wax via Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, and (3) hydroprocessing of this wax into isoparaffinic fuels.

A hydroprocessing configuration suitable for BTL has been found to directly convert fatty acid/glyceride feeds such as waste fats/greases into isoparaffinic fuels. The composition and properties of the isoparaffinic fuels from FT wax and fatty acids/glycerides have been found to be virtually the same and in conformance with commercial fuel specifications. A significant implication of these results is that next generation BTL fuels may be produced and marketed before the high capital gasification and FT reactors are built.