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March

2017

85

HYDROCARBON

ENGINEERING

M

any government agencies and startup

companies have promoted the development of

chemical materials that they plan to sell as

renewable products in the growing green

economy. These organisations have spent so long

considering how to convert a resource (biomass and crop

products) into a practical feedstock that they have not

worked out the next step of upgrading or refining the

biofeedstocks into finished products that are ready for

market or for use as recognised intermediates. This article

will address some of the lessons learned in the course of

working on the upgrading and refining objectives for these

‘crude’ sources during pilot-scale processing.

Biofeedstocks, including crop oils, alcohols, and

concentrated plant materials, characteristically have the

benefits of high hydrogen content and low sulfur content,

and fall into the boiling point range of fuels and

hydrocarbon intermediates. Manufacturers are urgently

seeking ways to make specification jet fuel, diesel fuel, and

even naphtha fuels from these sources. Catalyst and

process licensing organisations have responded with

adaptations of existing refining and upgrading methods.

The variety and variability of the new feedstocks remain a

challenge for immediate commercial application, leading to

errors in determining operating variables and estimating

process throughput and selectivity.

The essential intermediate step of a pilot-scale trial of

a proposed processing scheme has often been overlooked

in the interest of perceived lower cost and speed. Several

regrettable failures have reinforced the need for robust

data for the engineering package, upon which to design a

plant and its operations. The work completed at Southwest

Research Institute (SwRI) provides the opportunity to

address pilot plant implementations of proposed

LESSONS

LEARNED

Jimell Erwin, Ph.D.,

Southwest Research Institute,

USA,

outlines how pilot-scale

testing can help to assess the

rewards and challenges of

bioderived feedstocks.