Production, Techno-Economic and Life Cycle Analysis of Sustainable Aviation Fuel from Agro-Forestry Residues

航空业是增长最快的运输方式之一，预计到2030年，航空运输量将以每年5%的速度增长。目前，航空业占各种运输部门二氧化碳排放量的12%，预计在不久的将来将以4.1%的复合年增长率增长。因此，为了解决气候变化问题，航空运输行动小组制定了雄心勃勃的目标，通过开发一种碳中性航空燃料来稳定航空业的二氧化碳净排放量，这种燃料被认为是一种有希望减少温室气体排放的替代方案。因此，这项提议弥补了以农业和林业为原料以及沼气和生物柴油生产碳密集度较低的可持续航空临时燃料的差距。目前有几种生产生物喷气燃料的技术正在实践中，其中加氢处理酯和脂肪酸技术较为成熟，尽管它们的生产成本较高。最近的研究表明，与其他技术相比，水热液化和升级等加氢处理的解聚纤维素喷射技术具有生产成本低、产率高和资本成本适中的特点。因此，目前的提案将研究通过水热液化生产生物喷气燃料，然后通过催化加氢脱氧、催化裂化和异构化生产生物喷气燃料，然后进行生物粗提馏分、混合和共加工，以生产航空燃料。加氢脱氧的主要目的是去除生物质中的氧，提高氧化稳定性和热值。加氢半焦将作为催化剂载体，在共水热液化过程中产生，以开发加氢脱氧催化剂。在研究了生物喷气燃料的生产途径后，将研究其技术经济可行性和对环境的影响，以实现规模化和商业化。该项目的成果将为我们的工业合作伙伴Tidewater Renewables开发可持续的航空燃料生产工艺提供最佳解决方案。此外，这项建议将使加拿大其他可再生能源公司提高生产生物喷气燃料的利润率。

The aviation industry is one of the fastest growing modes of transportation sector with an expected annual increase rate of 5% in air traffic until 2030. Currently, the aviation industry is responsible for 12% of the CO2 emissions from various modes of transport sectors and it is expected to grow at a 4.1% of compound annual growth rate near future. Therefore, to address the climate change concerns, the Air Transport Action Group has set ambitious goals to stabilize the net CO2 emissions of the aviation sector by developing a carbon-neutral aviation fuel that is considered a promising alternative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, this proposal bridges the gap of producing less carbon-intensive sustainable aviation drop-in fuels from agricultural and forestry-derived feedstock along with biogasoline and biodiesel. Several technologies are in practice to produce bio-jet fuels, among them hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids technology are more mature although they has high production costs. Recent studies revealed that hydrotreated depolymerized cellulosic jet technologies such as hydrothermal liquefaction followed by upgrading have shown lower production costs, high yield, and modest capital costs relative to other technologies. Thus, the current proposal will investigate the production of bio-jet fuel via hydrothermal liquefaction followed by biocrude extraction and fractionation, blending and co-processing via catalytic hydrodeoxygenation, catalytic cracking, and isomerization to produce aviation fuels. The main objective of hydrodeoxygenation is to remove the oxygen from the biocrudes and enhance oxidative stability and calorific value. Hydrochar will be used as catalyst support that is produced during the co-hydrothermal liquefaction to develop hydrodeoxygenation catalysts. After investigating the bio-jet fuel production pathway, techno-economic feasibility and environmental impacts will be studied for scale-up and commercialization. The outcomes of this project will offer the best solutions to our industrial partner Tidewater Renewables in developing sustainable aviation fuel production process. Besides, this proposal will enable other Canadian renewable energy companies to improve their profit margin for bio-jet fuel production.