Biomass Derived Transport Fuels via Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis

作为欧盟可再生能源指令的一部分，英国制定了具体措施，将交通部门的温室气体（GHG）强度降低6%。此外，作为联合国成员国，英国在法律上有义务达到或超过到2020年运输部门使用10%可再生能源运输燃料的目标。然而，目前实现这些目标有两个重大障碍：1)英国运输部门仅从可再生能源中获得约4.4%的燃料；2)第一代生物燃料的使用上限为7%，来自农业用地上种植的作物，以保持耕地的可持续性，并确保对主食价格的影响降到最低。这意味着必须开发非粮食来源的生物燃料，以超过10%的目标，例如木质纤维素生物质或其他不需要的有机废物。液体生物燃料，主要是柴油和汽油，由于其高能量密度和在现有发动机和分配系统中使用的能力，比其他可再生运输燃料具有显著的优势。目前，美国和欧盟的商用柴油分别可以含有高达5%和7%的生物柴油。这是因为直接从植物中提取的生物燃料的成分在很大程度上依赖于源油，从而导致燃料性质的广泛变化，例如生物柴油和生物汽油的辛烷值或十六烷值分别不同。已经提出了几种技术来实现更一致的燃料，例如酶生物过程，快速热解，水热升级和气化形成合成气，然后是费托反应（FT）。该项目侧重于通过FT反应从生物质衍生的合成气中生产液体运输燃料（即汽油和柴油），称为生物质转化为液体（BTL）。由于公路运输占全球运输排放的75-85%，主要使用液体燃料，因此这是一个值得关注的领域。这个博士研究项目的总体目标是利用一个小规模的、综合的实验工作流程来研究从木质生物质中提取的合成气生产运输燃料。该过程将从生物质气化到生产的燃料质量进行研究。特别是，将探索合成气中污染物对催化剂活性、选择性和寿命的影响，以开发适合工业使用的多功能催化剂。

As part of the EU's Renewable Energy Directive, the UK has set specific measures to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity of the transport sector by 6%. Furthermore, as a UN member state, the UK is legally bound to meet, or surpass, a target of 10% usage of transport fuels from renewable sources in the transport sector by 2020.However, there are currently two significant barriers to meeting these targets: i) the UK's transport sector only gets around 4.4% of fuels from renewable sources and ii) there is a 7% cap on the use of first generation biofuels, from crops grown on agricultural land, to preserve the sustainability of arable land and to ensure the impact on staple food prices is minimised. This means that non-food derived biofuels must be developed to surpass the 10% target, such as lignocellulosic biomass or otherunwanted, organic waste.Liquid biofuels, predominately diesel and gasoline, have significant advantages over other renewable transport fuels owing to their high energy density and ability to be used in existing engines and distribution systems. Currently commercial diesel in the US and EU can contain up to 5 and 7 vol.% biodiesel respectively. This is because the composition of biofuels directly derived from plants depend heavily on the source oil, resulting in a wide variation in the properties of the fuel, such as octaneor cetane number of biodiesel and biogasoline, respectively.Several technologies have been proposed to achieve a more consistent fuel e.g. enzymatic biological processes, fast pyrolysis, hydrothermal upgrading and gasification to form syngas followed by the Fischer-Tropsch (FT) reaction. This project focuses on the production of liquid transport fuels (viz. petrol and diesel) from biomass derived syngas via the FT reaction, known as biomass to liquids (BTL). Since road transport accounts for 75-85% of the worldwide transportation emissions, primarily using liquidfuels, this is an area of significant interest.The overall objective of this PhD research project is to utilise a small scale, integrated experimental workflow to study the production of transport fuels via syngas derived from woody biomass. The process will be studied from gasification of biomass through to the quality of the fuels produced. In particular, the effect of contaminants in the syngas on catalyst activity, selectivity and lifespan will be explored with the aim of developing a multifunctional catalyst suitable for use within industry.