Purification of the diesel fraction of a novel biomass-to-liquid process****

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Ethanol is one of the most common biofuel used at global scale to displace part of the fossil fuel used in transportation, one of Canada's most important GHG producer. Although the actual federal mandate represents significant volumes on a yearly basis (2BL/y) there is certain issues related to ethanol and its compatibility with engines. In addition, this biofuel does not necessarily fit will all type of motors hence will not answer to all the demand. Industries such as aviation and heavy transportation still relies on alkanes which are at this point rarely produced from lignocellulosic biomass economically. This work is intended to support CelluFuel's industrial initiative targeting the direct conversion of lignocellulosic residues (more specifically lumber mill residues) into diesel grade alkanes using the CTC process. More specifically, this work will be dedicated in testing, designing and assembling a new purification method allowing the primary products generated from their patented technology to reach the specifications of fuel-grade diesel. In addition to the technical aspects, the purification methods that will be investigated will have to be as cost-effective as possible and involve materials that will be easily recovered and regenerated for further uses. To this purpose the project will be investigated on two levels, first of which will a bench scale system where the mixture will be tested in a smaller unit in order to reduce the volume of products to be treated in the preliminary steps. The next step will be to design a pilot unit that will be tested directly online on CelluFuel demonstration systems.