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Upgrading renewables, secondary, and waste streams through innovative hydroprocessing catalysts and reaction pathways

Problem statement

Hydroprocessing is a well-implemented and versatile refinery conversion strategy, comprising a wide array of reaction routes such as: (i) hydrotreating, aiming for the hydrogenation of unsaturated hydrocarbons and the removal (hydrogenolysis) of heteroatoms such as sulfur or nitrogen; (ii) hydrocracking, for promoting C–C bond scission and the partial saturation of aromatics; or (iii) hydrodeoxygenation, for the specific removal of oxygen moieties. In this project, we investigate the conversion of highly polyaromatic feedstock like heavy fuel oil (HFO), pyrolysis fuel oil (PFO), or bio-oils from different biomass sources (i.e., agricultural waste, algae) for quality improvement and obtaining products with higher added value.

We seek new (thermo-) catalytic strategies and improved heterogeneous catalysts with increased activity and stability. We put advanced analytical characterization techniques (i.e., nuclear magnetic resonance, high-res mass spectrometry) to work and combine their results with modeling and statistical tools.

Goals

  • Develop a quantitative analytical workflow to analyze and interpret these complex reacting environments
  • Explore novel renewable and waste resources to obtain chemicals and fuels
  • Deploy ad-hoc catalysts and process conditions to incorporate these wastes in the refinery (bio- and waste-refinery)
  • Analyze process dynamics and kinetics
HPC

Related People

Gontzal Lezcano
Idoia Hita

Related Publications

Revealing the Pathways of Catalyst Deactivation by Coke During the Hydrodeoxygenation of Raw Bio-Oil

by Cordero-Lanzac, Palos, Hita, Arandes, Rodriguez-Mirasol, Cordero, Bilbao, Castaño
Appl. Catal. B: Environ. Year: 2018

Abstract

Virtually all processes aiming for fuels and chemicals from biomass entail no less than one step for removing oxygen by hydrodeoxygenation (HDO). The bottleneck of HDO is the formation of deactivating carbonaceous species on the catalyst surface. In this work, we have studied the deactivation pathways of catalysts based on noble metal nanoparticles (Pt-Pd) supported on mildly acid supports during the HDO of raw bio-oil. At conditions of accelerated deactivation, monitoring the evolution with time on stream of hydrocarbon and oxygenated compounds in the reaction medium, the intermediates on the catalyst surface and the nature-location of deactivating species, two parallel deactivation routes have been revealed: the deposition of (i) thermal or pyrolytic lignin from alkylmethoxy phenols, on the catalyst mesopores and favored at low temperature, and; of (ii) aromatic coke from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, starting on the catalyst micropores through condensation reactions and promoted by acidic sites and high temperature. Nevertheless, catalyst deactivation can be controlled within limits at harsh temperature conditions (450 °C) due to the preferential HDO of alkyl(methoxy) phenols into aromatics and the formation-hydrocracking steady state of the aromatic precursors of coke.

Keywords

HPC MKM W2C