Upgrading sugar-alcohol derived gas oil in a gas oil hydrocracker
Biomass derived gas oil is blended with petroleum derived gas oil and upgrading into more salable and more valuable products by co-processing the blended material in a gas oil hydrocracking system comprising two reactors where the blended material is first hydrotreated and then hydrocracked.
1. A process for co-processing biomass derived gas oil stream with conventional petroleum derived gas oil thereby increasing the gasoline yield and middle distillate yield of a gas oil hydrocracker unit in an oil refinery comprising:
a) providing a biomass derived gas oil from a biomass conversion process;
b) blending the biomass derived gas oil with petroleum derived gas oil to form a blended feedstock such that the biomass derived gas oil comprises at least 0.5 percent of the blended feedstock;
c) feeding the blended feedstock along with hydrogen to a first reactor having a hydrotreating catalyst that tends to saturate carbon double bonds;
d) hydrotreating the blended feedstock in the first reactor to form a hydrotreated blended feedstock;
e) feeding the hydrotreated blended feedstock along with hydrogen into a second reactor having a hydrocracking catalyst that tends to break longer chain hydrocarbons to two or more shorter chain hydrocarbons;
f) hydrocracking the hydrotreated blended feedstock in the second reactor to form a cracked product; and
g) fractionating the cracked product to recover gasoline and middle distillates from the cracked product.
2. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the biomass derived gas oil is sugar alcohol derived gas oil.
3. The process according to claim 1 wherein the first reactor also includes a hydrocracking catalyst with the hydrotreating catalyst.
4. The process according to claim 1 wherein the blended feedstock comprises about 10 wt % biomass derived gas oil and about 90% wt % petroleum derived gas oil.
5. The process according to claim 1 wherein the hydrotreating catalyst is a hydrotreating catalyst.
6. The process according to claim 1 wherein the hydrocracking catalyst in the first reactor is a mild hydrocracking catalyst.
7. The process according to claim 1 wherein the hydrocracking catalyst in the second reactor is a naphtha hydrocracking catalyst.
8. The process according to claim 1 wherein the second hydrocracking catalyst in the second reactor is a hydrocracking catalyst.
9. The process according to claim 1 where the biomass derived gas oil is combined with the petroleum derived gas oil in a ratio of biomass derived to petroleum derived of between about 0.1 to 20 and about 1 to 1.