Renewable diesel production using a low-pressure flow reactor

可再生燃料是传统石油燃料的一种有前途的替代品；前者不依赖于新的化石燃料开采，但仍可用于现有的能源基础设施以及汽车、重型卡车和飞机。从废弃的植物油或动物脂肪中生产可再生燃料还有一个额外的好处，就是将这些低价值的产品转化为一种经济资产。UBC的Berlingette集团和森科尔能源公司正在通过NSERC联盟项目合作，展示在可扩展的钯(Pd)膜反应器中利用可再生原料生产可再生燃料(主要是柴油)。这种方法旨在规避与现有加工方法相关的关键挑战，这些挑战包括：i)推动柴油生产所需的大量能源；ii)建造能够承受高温和高压条件的反应堆的高昂资本成本；以及iii)与易燃原料和产品一起处理加热和加压氢气所产生的安全考虑。该项目建立在Berlingette Group开发名为“THOR”的钯膜反应器技术的基础上，使传统的高温高压加氢反应能够在环境条件下使用从水中提取的氢气进行。为了利用THOR将可再生原料转化为可再生燃料，需要在两个领域进行研发：i)扩大THOR能够加氢的分子类型，以包括在废弃生物质/生物颗粒中发现的分子；以及ii)设计、工程和演示可扩展的反应堆架构。这个名为“SunThor”的项目旨在填补这些关键领域的知识空白。如果成功，该项目将确定一条商业化道路，最终目标是利用可再生能源产生的电力，以适度的条件从可再生原料中工业化生产可再生燃料。高效、经济和安全地生产可再生燃料的创新方法不仅将使加拿大受益，还将有助于减轻社会日益增长的能源需求对环境的负面影响，从而使全球社会受益。

Renewable fuels are a promising alternative to conventional petroleum-based fuels; the former does not rely on new fossil fuel extraction, but can still be used in existing energy infrastructure as well as cars, heavy haul trucks, and airplanes. Producing renewable fuels from waste vegetable oils or animal fats has the added benefit of transforming these low-value products into an economic asset. The Berlinguette Group at UBC and Suncor Energy Inc are partnering through an NSERC Alliance project to demonstrate production of renewable fuels (primarily diesel) from renewable feedstocks in a scalable palladium (Pd) membrane reactor. This approach is designed to circumvent key challenges associated with incumbent processing methods, which include: i) large energy requirements to drive diesel production; ii) high capital costs to build reactors that can sustain high-temperature and -pressure conditions; and iii) safety considerations resulting from handling heated and pressurized hydrogen gas together with flammable feedstocks and products. This project builds upon the Berlinguette Group's work developing a Pd membrane reactor technology, called "Thor", to enable traditionally high-temperature and -pressure hydrogenation reactions to be carried out in ambient conditions using hydrogen derived from water. In order to leverage Thor to convert renewable feedstocks into renewable fuels, R&D in two areas is needed: i) expansion of the types of molecules Thor is able to hydrogenate to include those found in waste biomass/biocrudes; and ii) design, engineering, and demonstration of a scalable reactor architecture. This "SunThor" project is designed to fill knowledge gaps in these key areas. If successful, the project will define a path toward commercialization with the ultimate goal of industrial-scale production of renewable fuels from renewable feedstocks at modest conditions using electricity derived from renewable sources. Innovative methods for efficient, economical, and safe production of renewable fuels would benefit not only Canada, but the global community by contributing to the mitigation of the negative environmental impacts of society's increasing energy demands.