Integration of hydrogenation-derived renewable diesel with conventional diesel

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Biomass-based liquid fuel production is gaining a lot of interest and it can contribute significantly to reduction of greenhouse gases (GHG). This research project is aimed at assessment of agricultural and forestry biomass for hydrogenation-derived renewable diesel (HDRD) production and development of knowledge-base for scale-up of this pathway to larger scale. Both biodiesel and HDRD can be produced from vegetable oils but the differences lie in the processing methods and final product composition. Energy companies are becoming increasingly interested in producing HDRD rather than biodiesel because HDRD's chemical composition is much closer to that of petroleum diesel and it can have better cold flow properties than biodiesel which are more suitable to colder climate such as in Canada. This research will develop data intensive techno-economic models for assessment of the utilization of agricultural biomass (e.g. straw or grains such as camelina, canola) and forest biomass (e.g. forest residues, whole tree, energy crops including willow) for colder climate appropriate for Canada and estimate the cost of production of HDRD. An energy and emissions assessment of the whole renewable diesel production and utilization process will be conducted along with other sources of biomass. This will help in estimating the total GHG emissions over the life cycle of the HDRD production and utilization. The results of this project will help the petroleum industry with a clear understanding of the cost of biomass based HDRD production and the abatement costs of production of HDRD through various pathways. This project aims at training at least five highly qualified personnel (HQPs) in the area of energy modeling and renewable energy. These HQPs could play a significant role in fast developing renewable energy sector in Canada.