Synergistic routes to liquid fuel for a petroleum‐deprived future

Abstract

Abstract When compared with biomass gasification/Fischer‐Tropsch synthesis, hydropyrolysis/hydrodeoxygenation (HDO)‐based processes have a potential to achieve high biomass carbon conversion to liquid fuel with much lower amounts of supplementary H 2 . On the basis of this observation, we suggest a Hydrogen Bio‐oil (H 2 Bioil) process using fast hydropyrolysis/HDO that has a potential to produce nearly double the amount of liquid fuel when compared with the existing biofuel processes while requiring only modest quantities of supplementary H 2 . The optimal operating mode for the H 2 Bioil process is suggested to be in an entrained bed mode in presence of H 2 with gas phase HDO of hydropyrolyzed vapors. A remarkable result due to reduced need for the supplementary H 2 is that it provides synergistic integration of the H 2 Bioil process with a coal gasification power plant or a small scale steam natural gas (NG) reformer leading to a dramatic increase in the liquid fuel production from biomass and coal or NG. Here, hot synthesis gas (T>500°C) from a coal gasifier or methane reformer supplies H 2 /CO for hydropyrolysis and deoxygenation as well as heat for the process. This result is exciting, because it presents us with an option to build integrated H 2 Bioil processes sooner rather than later when the cost effective H 2 becomes available from a carbon‐free energy source such as solar or nuclear. The H 2 Bioil process and its integrated version with a small scale NG reformer have strong potential to be attractive on a small scale while being more efficient than any current biomass to liquid fuel process in operation. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2009