Opening pathways for the conversion of woody biomass into sustainable aviation fuel via catalytic fast pyrolysis and hydrotreating

Griffin, Michael B.; Iisa, Kristiina; Dutta, Abhijit; Chen, Xiaolin; Wrasman, Cody J.; Mukarakate, Calvin; Yung, Matthew M.; Nimlos, Mark R.; Tuxworth, Luke; Baucherel, Xavier; Rowland, Steven M.; Habas, Susan E.

doi:10.1039/d4gc03333g

Opening pathways for the conversion of woody biomass into sustainable aviation fuel via catalytic fast pyrolysis and hydrotreating

Journal Article · Fri Aug 09 00:00:00 EDT 2024 · Green Chemistry

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1039/d4gc03333g· OSTI ID:2438308

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National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Johnson Matthey Technology Center, Billingham (United Kingdom)

Meeting aggressive decarbonization targets set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) will require the rapid development of technologies to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Catalytic fast pyrolysis (CFP) can support these efforts by opening pathways for the conversion of woody biomass into an upgraded biogenic oil that can be further processed to SAF and other fuels. However, the absence of end-to-end experimental data for the process leads to uncertainty in the yield, product quality, costs, and sustainability of the pathway. The research presented here serves to address these needs through a series of integrated experimental campaigns in which real biomass feedstocks are converted to a final SAF product using large bench-scale continuous reactor systems. For these campaigns, the degree of catalytic upgrading during CFP was varied to produce CFP-oils with oxygen contents of 17 and 20 wt% on a dry basis. The CFP-oils were then hydrotreated and distilled into gasoline, diesel, and SAF fractions. Detailed yield and compositional data were obtained for each step of the process to inform technoeconomic and lifecycle analyses, and the fuel properties of the SAF fraction were evaluated to provide first-of-its-kind insight into the quality of the final product. This research reveals opportunities to optimize process carbon efficiency by tuning the degree of catalytic upgrading during the CFP step and highlights routes to produce a high-quality cycloalkane-rich SAF with 85–92% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to fossil-based pathways.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Office of Sustainable Transportation. Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

OSTI ID:: 2438308

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA--5100-88690; MainId:89469; UUID:1b914b89-a630-49ae-a3e5-712f1fba942b; MainAdminId:73459

Journal Information:: Green Chemistry, Journal Name: Green Chemistry Journal Issue: 18 Vol. 26; ISSN 1463-9262

Publisher:: Royal Society of ChemistryCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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09 BIOMASS FUELS
biomass
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Opening pathways for the conversion of woody biomass into sustainable aviation fuel via catalytic fast pyrolysis and hydrotreating

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