Integrated plasma catalytic processes for hydrogen-free upgrading of biomass-derived biofuels to hydrocarbon fuels

不断增长的原油需求和接近全球最大开采量，再加上管理温室气体排放的需要，使得开发可持续能源变得至关重要。可再生柴油/汽油是未来的交通燃料。加拿大、美国(到2022年将混合600亿升生物燃料)和欧盟(到2020年运输部门将有10%的可再生能源)最近通过了雄心勃勃的生物燃料支持政策。这项战略赠款申请旨在使生物质衍生的生物燃料能够在非常规环境--无氢和低压--中升级。该计划将建立在新不伦瑞克大学嬴政和贝尔法斯特女王大学胡培军实验室之间的合作基础上。我们的工业合作伙伴是大西洋氢化物公司，该公司长期以来一直对等离子体技术在“绿色”能源中的应用感兴趣。生物质衍生生物燃料是一种复杂的含氧物的混合物，在直接用作燃料或混合到石油柴油/汽油中之前，需要对其进行升级。在这一合作过程中，我们将开发一种集成的等离子体催化过程和一种高效的催化剂，用于在不存在高压氢气的情况下从生物燃料中去除氧气。消除加压氢气不仅意味着显著降低成本，还将允许分散的小型生物精炼厂使用该技术，因为集中式工厂经常可以获得高压氢气。

The combination of escalating demand for crude oil and approaching global maximum extraction, plus the need to manage greenhouse gas emissions, make the development of sustainable energy sources critical. Renewable diesel/gasoline fuels are the transportation fuels of future. Ambitious biofuel support policies have recently been adopted by Canada, United States (with 60 billion litres of biofuel blended by 2022) and the European Union (with 10% renewable energy in the transport sector by 2020).This strategic grant application aims to enable upgrading biomass-derived biofuel in an unconventional environment - hydrogenless and low pressure. The plan is to build on the collaboration between the labs of Ying Zheng at the University of New Brunswick and of Peijun Hu at the Queen's University at Belfast. Our industrial partner is Atlantic Hyrogen Inc. which has a long-standing interest in application of plasma technology in "green" energy. Biomass-derived biofuel is a mixture of complex oxygenates that need to be upgraded before it can be used directly as fuel or blended to Petroleum diesel/gasoline. In the course of this collaboration we will develop an integrated plasma catalytic process and an efficient catalyst for removal of oxygen from biofuels without the presence of highly pressurized hydrogen gas. Elimination of pressurized hydrogen gas will not only represent significant reduction in costs but also allow decentralized small biorefineries to use the technology, as high pressurized hydrogen gas is often available at centralized plants.