Methods for co-processing of biomass and petroleum feed
View Patent ↗A process for producing fuel from biomass is disclosed herein. The process includes torrefying biomass material at a temperature between 80° C. to 400° C. to form particulated biomass having a mean average particle size between 1 μm and 1000 μm. The particulated biomass is mixed with a liquid hydrocarbon to form a suspension, wherein the suspension includes from 1 weight percent to 40 weight percent particulated biomass. The suspension is fed into a unit selected from the group consisting of a pyrolysis reactor, a fluid catalytic cracking unit, a delayed coker, a fluid coker, a hydroprocessing unit, and a hydrocracking unit, and then at least a portion of the particulated biomass of the suspension is converted into fuel.
1. A process for producing fuel from biomass comprising:
(i) torrefying biomass material at a temperature between 80° C. and 400° C. under conditions wherein biomass conversion is avoided to form particulated biomass having a mean average particle size from 1 μm to 1000 μm;
(ii) mixing the particulated biomass with a liquid hydrocarbon to form a stable suspension of particulated biomass within the liquid hydrocarbon, wherein the suspension comprises between 1 weight percent and 40 weight percent particulated biomass;
(iii) contacting the suspension with a heat-carrier material, wherein the heat carrier material comprises a catalyst, the catalyst being selected from the group consisting of a cobalt molybdate, a nickel molybdate, and a tungstate hydroprocessing catalyst;
(iv) feeding the suspension into a unit selected from the group consisting of a pyrolysis reactor, a fluid catalytic cracking unit, a delayed coker, a fluid coker, a hydroprocessing unit, and a hydrocracking unit; and
(v) converting at least a portion of the particulated biomass of the suspension into fuel.
2. The process of claim 1 , wherein the step of torrefying the biomass material is performed at a temperature between 80° C. and 200° C.
3. The process of claim 1 , wherein the step of torrefying the biomass material is performed at a temperature between 110° C. and 400° C.
4. The process of claim 1 , wherein the suspension of particulated biomass within the liquid hydrocarbon comprises between 5 weight percent and 25 weight percent particulated biomass.
5. The process of claim 1 , further comprising: heating the suspension of particulated biomass within the liquid hydrocarbon, prior to feeding the suspension into the unit, to a temperature between 300° C. and 500° C.
6. The process of claim 1 , further comprising: heating the suspension of particulated biomass within the liquid hydrocarbon, prior to feeding the suspension into the unit, to a temperature between 380° C. and 400° C.
7. The process of claim 1 , wherein the liquid hydrocarbon is obtained from a refinery stream.
8. The process of claim 1 , further comprising: torrefying the suspension of particulated biomass within the liquid hydrocarbon prior to feeding the suspension into the unit.
9. The process of claim 1 , further comprising: demineralizing a mineral-containing biomass material to form the biomass material prior to torrefying the biomass material, wherein following demineralization, the biomass material has a mineral content of less than about 2.5 weight percent based on a total composition of the biomass material.
10. The process of claim 9 , wherein following demineralization, the biomass material has a mineral content of less than about 1 weight percent based on a total composition of the biomass material.
11. The process of claim 9 , wherein following demineralization, the biomass material has a mineral content of less than about 0.5 weight percent based on a total composition of the biomass material.
12. The process of claim 9 , wherein the step of demineralizing the mineral-containing biomass material to form the biomass material further comprises: soaking the mineral-containing biomass material with a solvent, and subsequently removing at least part of the solvent, wherein the solvent is selected from the group consisting of: an aqueous solvent, a mineral acid, an organic acid, an acetic acid and a carboxylic acid; and wherein the solvent has a pH of less than about 7.
13. The process of claim 9 , wherein the step of demineralizing the mineral-containing biomass material to form the biomass material further comprises: soaking the mineral-containing biomass material with a solvent, and subsequently removing at least part of the solvent, wherein the solvent is selected from the group consisting of: an aqueous solvent, a mineral acid, an organic acid, an acetic acid and a carboxylic acid; and wherein the solvent has a pH between 2 and 5.
14. The process of claim 1 , wherein the liquid hydrocarbon material is selected from the group consisting of naphtha, gasoil, light cycle oil, heavy cycle oil, atmospheric residuum, vacuum residuum, FCC bottoms, aromatic furfural extract, slurry oil, decant oil, de-asphalted oil, crude oil, atmospheric tower bottoms, atmospheric gas oil, vacuum gas oil, light vacuum gas oil, heavy vacuum gas oil, clarified slurry oil, hydrotreated vacuum gas oil, hydrotreated de-asphalted oil, coker gas oil, hydrotreated coker gas oil, and mixtures thereof.
15. The process of claim 1 , wherein the heat-carrier material further comprises an inert material.
16. The process of claim 1 further comprising forming a biomass-catalyst mixture prior to the torrefying step.
17. The process of claim 16 wherein the biomass-catalyst mixture is formed in a kneader.
18. The process of claim 1 wherein the catalyst is an acidic catalyst.
19. The process of claim 1 wherein the catalyst is a basic catalyst.
20. The process of claim 1 wherein the catalyst is solid.
21. The process of claim 1 wherein the catalyst is in solution.
22. The process of claim 1 wherein in the step of mixing, the stable suspension comprises between 1 weight percent and 40 weight percent particulated biomass evenly distributed in the liquid hydrocarbon.
23. The process of claim 1 wherein the step of mixing the particulated biomass with the liquid hydrocarbon is performed in a high shear mixer.
24. The process of claim 1 , wherein the step of torrefying the biomass material is performed at a temperature between 200° C. and 375° C.