Biomass treatment for hydrothermal hydrocatalytic conversion

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9353478-B2
Application number	US-201414574530-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 18, 2014
Priority date	Dec 18, 2013
Publication date	May 31, 2016
Grant date	May 31, 2016

Abstract

A selective removal of chlorine and phosphorus that are detrimental to subsequent hydrothermal hydrocatalytic conversion from the biomass feed prior to carrying out catalytic hydrogenation/hydrogenolysis/hydrodeoxygenation of the biomass in a manner that does not reduce the effectiveness of the hydrothermal hydrocatalytic treatment while minimizing the amount of water used in the process is provided.

First claim

What is claim is:

1. A method for selective removal of chlorine and phosphorus from a cellulosic biomass solids, said method comprising a plurality of vessels:
a. providing each of said vessels with one of detrimental species-containing cellulosic biomass solids;
b. introducing a quantity of a base solution having a pH of greater than 9 from an inlet into a first vessel of said plurality of vessels containing said detrimental species-containing cellulosic biomass solids at a temperature in the range of about 0° C. to about 60° C.;
c. repeating step (b) for a second vessel of said plurality of vessels;
d. introducing a quantity of aqueous solution having a pH of at most 8 from an inlet into said first vessel of said plurality of vessels treated according to step (b) thereby discharging the basic water effluent;
e. repeating step (d) for the second vessel of said plurality of vessels treated according to step (c);
f. introducing a quantity of gas or organic solution from an inlet into the first vessel of said plurality of vessels treated according to step (d) and discharging the aqueous effluent;
g. repeating step (f) for the second vessel of said plurality of vessels treated according to step (e);
h. recycling at least a portion of the discharged aqueous effluent as a portion of the base solution;
i. transferring at least a portion of the biomass treated according to steps (f) and (g) to a digestion and/or reaction vessel;
j. wherein at least 2 of the vessels are undergoing at least one of the steps (b) through (i) at the same time; and
k. wherein the amount of the total basic water effluent from the plurality of vessels is in the range of from about 3 parts to about 0.5 parts relative to about 1 part of detrimental species—containing cellulosic biomass solids (dry basis).

2. The method of claim 1 wherein steps (b), (d) ,(f) and (i) are repeated for n vessels where n is an integer from 2 to 20.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein n is an integer from 2 to 10.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein n is an integer from 3 to 6.

5. The method of claim 1 further adjusting the pH of at least a portion of the discharged aqueous effluent to a pH of greater than 9 by adding a base to the discharged aqueous solution prior to recycling as a portion of the base solution.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the base solution comprises a base selected from sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide or ammonia.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the base solution comprises a base in an amount of less than 5 Normal and at least 0.01 Normal.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein, in the digestion and/or reaction zone, the treated cellulosic biomass is contacted with a hydrothermal hydrocatalytic catalyst in the presence of hydrogen and a digestion solvent thereby producing an intermediate oxygenated product stream comprising oxygenated hydrocarbons and water; and at least a portion of the water is separated and recycled as the aqueous solution.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein, in the digestion and/or reaction zone, the treated cellulosic biomass is contacted with a hydrothermal hydrocatalytic catalyst in the presence of hydrogen and a digestion solvent thereby producing an intermediate oxygenated product stream; at least a portion of the oxygenated intermediate product stream is converted to a hydrocarbon product stream comprising hydrocarbons and water; and at least a portion of the water is separated and recycled as the aqueous solution.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein, the oxygenated intermediate product stream comprises oxygenated hydrocarbons and water, and at least a portion of the water is separated and recycled as the aqueous solution.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the aqueous solution is in-situ generated.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the gas is selected from the group consisting of air, hydrogen, nitrogen, steam, organic vapors, and mixtures thereof.

13. The method of claim 9 wherein the organic solvent is the digestion solvent.

14. The method of claim 9 wherein the organic solvent is in-situ generated.

Assignees

• Shell Oil Co

Inventors

• Powell Joseph Broun
• Chheda Juben Nemchand

Classifications

• C08H8/00

  Macromolecular compounds derived from lignocellulosic materials {(pretreatment thereof B27N)} · CPC title

• C10G3/50

  in the presence of hydrogen, hydrogen donors or hydrogen generating compounds · CPC title

• C10G2300/4081

  Recycling aspects · CPC title

• C10G1/065

  in the presence of a solvent · CPC title

• C07G1/00 Primary

  Low-molecular-weight derivatives of lignin (high-molecular-weight derivatives of lignin {C08H6/00}) · CPC title