Process for integrated production of renewable fuels and chemicals

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12187965-B2
Application number	US-201917418362-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 20, 2019
Priority date	Dec 31, 2018
Publication date	Jan 7, 2025
Grant date	Jan 7, 2025

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a versatile process for producing valuable renewable hydrocarbons from triglyceride containing feedstock. The triglyceride containing feedstock is first split to provide a mixture containing fatty acids, glycerol and water, from which a phase separation provides an oily phase, and an aqueous phase. The oily phase containing fatty acids is subjected to fractionation, whereby specific fractions may be refined to products with controlled hydroprocessing. Products may contain paraffinic renewable aviation fuel components, paraffinic renewable base oil, renewable paraffinic diesel fuel components, renewable paraffinic technical fluid, or any combination thereof.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A process for producing renewable hydrocarbon components from triglyceride containing feedstock, said process comprising:
a. hydrolyzing said triglyceride containing feedstock to provide a mixture containing fatty acids, glycerol and water;
b. subjecting said mixture containing fatty acids, glycerol and water to a phase separation to recover an oily phase containing fatty acids, and an aqueous phase containing glycerol and water;
c. subjecting said oily phase containing fatty acids to fractionation to provide a first fatty acid fraction containing at least 80%-wt of free fatty acids having a carbon chain length of C16 or less, of a total fraction weight, and a second fatty acid fraction containing free fatty acids having a carbon chain length of at least C17;
d. subjecting said first fatty acid fraction to:
hydroprocessing to provide a paraffinic renewable aviation fuel component, wherein hydroprocessing comprises hydrodeoxygenation and hydroisomerization, simultaneously or in sequence, or
ketonisation before hydroprocessing to provide a paraffinic renewable base oil, or
a combination thereof;

e. subjecting said second fatty acid fraction to hydroprocessing, wherein hydroprocessing comprises hydrodeoxygenation and hydroisomerization, simultaneously or in sequence, to provide:
a renewable paraffinic diesel fuel component,
a renewable paraffinic technical fluid, or
a combination thereof;

f. recovering renewable hydrocarbon components, comprising renewable aviation fuel component and/or paraffinic renewable base oil, and a renewable paraffinic diesel fuel component and/or a renewable paraffinic technical fluid, as products from steps d and e; and
subjecting said aqueous phase containing glycerol and water obtained from separation of step b, to a step g for producing propanols,
wherein hydroprocessing conditions applied to the first fatty acid fraction in step d differ from hydroprocessing conditions applied to the second fatty acid fraction in step e.

2. A process according to claim 1 , wherein the fractionation of step c is conducted by distillation.

3. A process according to claim 2 , wherein distillation conditions of step c include a temperature from 200 to 300° C.

4. A process according to claim 2 , wherein distillation conditions of step c include a pressure from 0.2 to 5 kPa.

5. A process according to claim 1 , wherein the triglyceride containing feedstock is selected from the group consisting of plant fats, plant oils, plant waxes, animal fats, animal oils, animal waxes, fish fats, fish oils, fish waxes, waste and residue materials.

6. A process according to claim 5 , wherein the triglyceride containing feedstock comprises:
palm oil waste materials, animal fat waste materials or a combination thereof.

7. A process according to claim 1 , wherein hydrodeoxygenation conditions comprise:
a temperature in a range from 100 to 500° C.; a pressure in the range from 2-8 MPa; optionally a WHSV in the range from 0.5 to 3 h −1 ; a H 2 flow of 350-900 nl H 2 /l feed; and the hydrodeoxygenation catalyst is selected from Pd, Pt, Ni, CoMo, NiMo, NiW, CoNiMo on a support, wherein the support is alumina and/or silica.

8. A process according to claim 1 , wherein hydroisomerization conditions comprise:
a temperature in range from 200 to 450° C.; a pressure in range from 1-6 MPa; optionally a WHSV in range from 0.5-3 h −1 , and a H 2 flow of 100-800 nl H 2 /l feed, in a presence of an hydroisomerization catalyst selected from a Group VIII metal, Pd, Pt or Ni; and a molecular sieve, on an alumina and/or silica support.

9. A process according to claim 1 , wherein ketonisation reaction conditions comprise:
a temperature from 300 to 400° C. and a pressure from 0.5 to 3.0 MPa, in a presence of a metal oxide ketonisation catalyst selected from one or more of Ti, Mn, Mg, K, Ca, and Zr containing metal oxide catalysts.

10. A process according to claim 9 , wherein the ketonisation reaction conditions comprise:
a presence of CO 2 gas flow, of a 0.1 to 1.5 gas/feed ratio (w/w).

11. A process according to claim 1 , wherein the recovering of hydrocarbon components comprises:
recovering at least three components selected from renewable paraffinic base oil, renewable paraffinic diesel fuel component, renewable paraffinic aviation fuel component, renewable paraffinic naphtha component and renewable paraffinic technical fluid.

12. A process according to claim 1 , wherein step g comprises:
i. at least one evaporation, wherein the evaporation results in a vapor phase;
ii. catalytic conversion of glycerol to 1-propanol, 2-propanol or a mixture thereof at vapor phase in presence of water, and
iii. separation and recovery of 1-propanol, 2-propanol or a mixture thereof as a renewable propanol gasoline component.

13. A process according to claim 12 , wherein the catalytic conversion (ii) is conducted at a temperature below 400° C.

14. A process according to claim 12 , wherein an aqueous residue is withdrawn from the evaporation (i).

15. A process according to claim 1 , comprising:
blending the obtained propanols or renewable propanol gasoline component with a renewable paraffinic naphtha component.

16. A process according to claim 1 , wherein the renewable paraffinic aviation fuel component consists essentially of:
paraffinic hydrocarbons having carbon chain length from C6 to C17, fulfilling the ASTM D7566-18 standard specification, having a density of less than 772 kg/m 3 as measured according to ASTM 4052D, and a freezing point of less than −40° C. as measured according to IP529.

17. A process according to claim 11 , wherein the renewable paraffinic technical fluid oil is a transformer oil which consists essentially of:
paraffinic hydrocarbons fulfilling the IEC 60296 standard, and having viscosity at 40° C. as measured according to ENISO 3104 of 12 mm 2 /s or below, viscosity at −30° C. as measured according to ENISO 3104 of 1800 mm 2 /s or below, a flash point (PM) as measured according to ENISO 2719 of at least 135° C., and acidity of less than 0.01 mg KOH/g.

18. A process according to claim 1 , for producing at least one product selected from
renewable base oil fulfilling the API Group III base oil specifications having ≥90 wt % saturated hydrocarbons, ≤0.03 wt-% sulfur and a viscosity index of ≥120;
renewable aviation fuel component consisting of paraffinic hydrocarbons having carbon chain length from C6 to C17, fulfilling the ASTM D7566-16b, Annex A2 specification, having a density of less than 772 kg/m 3 as measured according to ASTM 4052, and a freezing point of less than −40° C. as measured according to IP529;
renewable transformer oil consisting of paraffinic hydrocarbons fulfilling the IEC 60296 specification, and having viscosity at 40° C. as measured according to ENISO 3104 of 12 mm 2 /s or below, viscosity at −30° C. as measured according to ENISO 3104 of 1800 mm 2 /s or below, a flash point (PM) as measured according to ENISO 2719 of at least 135° C., and acidity of less than 0.01 mg KOH/g;
renewable diesel fuel consisting of paraffinic hydrocarbons fulfilling the EN 15940:2016 European standard; and/or
renewable gasoline fuel.

19. A process according to claim 18 , comprising: producing a combined renewable transformer oil and fuel.

20. A process according to claim 2 , wherein distillation conditions of step c include a temperature from 220 to 250° C.

21. A process according to claim 2 , wherein distillation conditions of step c include

Assignees

• Neste Oyj

Inventors

• Tiitta Marja
• Myllyoja Jukka
• Sippola Väinö

Classifications

• C10G65/14

  plural parallel stages only · CPC title

• C10G2400/08

  Jet fuel · CPC title

• C10G2400/04

  Diesel oil · CPC title

• C10G2300/4018

  Spatial velocity, e.g. LHSV, WHSV · CPC title

• C10G2300/4012

  Pressure · CPC title