Integration of stabilized bio-oil in light cycle oil hydrotreatment unit targeting hybrid fuels
Athanasios Dimitriadis, George Meletidis, U. Pfisterer, Miloš Auersvald, David Kubička, Stella Bezergianni
Abstract
Fast pyrolysis bio-oil requires upgrading in order to be used as an intermediate refinery stream as it contains various acids, oxygenates, heavy compounds and water. This work examines the potential of integrating the organic phase (called BioMates) of a hydrotreated pyrolysis bio-oil as a reliable intermediate refinery stream to be co-processed with a light cycle oil (LCO) towards the production of hybrid fuels. Three blends of BioMates with LCO were fed in a hydroprocessing pilot plant (10/90, 20/80 and 30/70 v/v BioMates/LCO). The dedicated tests aimed to study the BioMates effect on the LCO hydrodesulphurization performance, hydrogen consumption, product quality and catalyst life. The results have confirmed that over 85% per weight of the final product is between 60 and 360 °C boiling range and exhibit favorable fuel properties. The technology can process up to 30% per volume BioMates in LCO without any significant technical limitation, while reducing the hydrogen consumption up to 8.9%. Finally, based on the findings, no clogging or permanent loss of catalyst effectiveness was observed after 37 days on stream.