Integration of hydrogenation-derived renewable diesel with conventional diesel

以生物质为基础的液体燃料生产正受到人们的广泛关注，它可以为减少温室气体(GHG)做出重大贡献。本研究项目的目的是评估用于加氢衍生可再生柴油(HDRD)生产的农林生物质，并开发知识库，以便将这一途径扩大到更大规模。生物柴油和HDRD都可以用植物油生产，但不同的是加工方法和最终产品组成不同。能源公司对生产HDRD而不是生物柴油越来越感兴趣，因为HDRD的化学成分与石油柴油更接近，而且它比生物柴油具有更好的冷流性能，后者更适合加拿大等较冷的气候。这项研究将开发适用于加拿大的数据密集型技术经济模型，以评估农业生物质(例如稻草或茶树、油菜籽等谷物)和森林生物质(例如森林残留物、整棵树、包括柳树在内的能源作物)在较冷气候中的利用情况，并估计HDRD的生产成本。将与其他生物质来源一起对整个可再生柴油生产和利用过程进行能源和排放评估。这将有助于估计HDRD生产和使用的整个生命周期内的温室气体排放总量。该项目的成果将有助于石油行业清楚地了解基于生物质的HDRD生产的成本以及通过各种途径生产HDRD的减少成本。该项目的目的是在能源建模和可再生能源领域培训至少五名高素质人员。这些HQP可以在加拿大快速发展的可再生能源行业发挥重要作用。

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.