Mild Biomass Liquefaction Process for Economic Production of Stabilized Refinery-Ready Bio-oil
- Southern Research, Durham, NC (United States)
- Princeton Univ., NJ (United States). Princeton Environmental Inst.
Southern Research (SR) in cooperation with U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Bioenergy Technology Office (BETO), investigated a biomass liquefaction process for economic production of stabilized refinery-ready bio-oil. The project was awarded by DOE under a Funding Opportunity Announcement (DE-FOA-0000686) for Bio-oil Stabilization and Commoditization that intended to evaluate the feasibility of using bio-oil as a potential feedstock in an existing petroleum refinery. SR investigated Topic Area 1 of the FOA at Technology Readiness Level 2-3 to develop thermochemical liquefaction technologies for producing a bio-oil feedstock from high-impact biomass that can be utilized within a petroleum refinery. Bio-oil obtained from fast pyrolysis of biomass is a green intermediate that can be further upgraded into a biofuel for blending in a petroleum refinery using a hydro-deoxygenation (HDO) route. Co-processing pyrolysis bio-oil in a petroleum refinery is an attractive approach to leverage the refinery’s existing capital. However, the petroleum industry is reluctant to accept pyrolysis bio-oil because of a lack of a standard definition for an acceptable bio-oil feedstock in existing refinery processes. Also per BETO’s multiyear program plan, fast pyrolysis-based bio-fuel is presently not cost competitive with petroleum-based transportation fuels. SR aims to develop and demonstrate a cost-effective low-severity thermal liquefaction and hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) process to convert woody biomass to stabilized bio-oils that can be directly blended with hydrotreater input streams in a petroleum refinery for production of gasoline and/or diesel range hydrocarbons. The specific project objectives are to demonstrate the processes at laboratory scale, characterize the bio-oil product and develop a plan in partnership with a refinery company to move the technology towards commercialization.
- Research Organization:
- Southern Research, Durham, NC (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Sustainable Transportation Office. Bioenergy Technologies Office
- Contributing Organization:
- Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- EE0006062
- OSTI ID:
- 1337870
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-Southern Research-0006062
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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