Hydrothermal upgrading of non-food corn-oil into high value alternative fuels

在这个NSERC CRD项目中，我们将与Aduro能源公司和Greenfield特种酒精公司合作，研究如何从乙醇生产过程中产生的玉米油废料中生产高质量的燃料。西方大学的初步工作表明，通过调整亚/超临界水中的实验条件，可以很容易地控制几种游离脂肪酸模型化合物的脱羧化学反应，以帮助驱动脱羧化学反应。接近超临界条件下的水既有助于溶解生物质饲料，又有助于推动脱羧化学反应获得非常高的产量，并形成升级燃料。该项目将专注于将EtOH生产的副产品玉米油升级为绿色柴油和航空燃料。这种方法可以通过将低价值的副产品玉米油转化为高价值的替代燃料来帮助增加世界各地乙醇生产商的收入。西部大学的学生将优化催化剂结构和反应工程工艺参数，研究脱羧动力学和反应机理。将审查四个GFSA酒精生产基地提供的原料，以了解其化学结构和可变性如何影响催化过程和催化剂失活。在这个项目结束时，我们将优化催化剂结构和过程动力学。此外，我们将帮助我们的支持公司在安大略省查塔姆的工厂演示这种方法，他们将同时将我们的结果转化为新的示范工厂。该项目将有助于消除当前的废物问题，同时为加拿大经济提供新的清洁技术解决方案和价值链。

In this NSERC CRD project we will work with Aduro Energy and Greenfield Specialty Alcohols on examining how to produce high quality fuels from corn-oil waste produced during ethanol production. Preliminary work at Western University has shown that decarboxylation chemistry of several model compounds of free fatty acids can be easily controlled by tuning the experimental conditions in sub/supercritical water to help drive the decarboxylation chemistry. Water at near supercritical conditions both helps to solubilize the biomass feed while helping drive the decarboxylation chemistry to very high yields and forming upgraded fuel. This project will focus on upgrading corn oil produced as a byproduct of EtOH production into green diesel and jet fuel. This approach can help increase the revenue of ethanol producers around the world by converting their low value byproduct corn oil into high value alternative fuels. Students from Western will optimize the catalyst structure and reaction engineering process parameters, examining the decarboxylation kinetics and reaction mechanism. Feedstocks provided from four GFSA alcohol production sites will be examined on how their chemical structure and variability influences the catalytic process and catalyst deactivation. At the end of this project we will have optimized the catalyst structure and process dynamics. In addition, we will help our supporting company's demonstrate this approach at their Chatham, Ont facility who in parallel will translate our results in a new demonstration faciltity. This project will help eliminate a current waste problem while providing a new cleantech solution and value chain for the Canadian economy.