An Intensified Reactive Separation Process for Bio-Jet Diesel Production

An intensified three-step reaction-separation process for the production of bio-jet diesel from tryglycerides and petro-diesel mixtures is proposed. The intensified reaction-separation process considers three sequentially connected sections: (1) a triglyceride hydrolysis section with a catalytic heterogeneous reactor, which is used to convert the triglycerides of the vegetable oils into the resultant fatty acids. The separation of the pure fatty acid from glycerol and water is performed by a three-phase flash drum and two conventional distillation columns; (2) a co-hydrotreating section with a reactive distillation column used to perform simultaneously the deep hydrodesulphurisation (HDS) of petro-diesel and the hydrodeoxigenation (HDO), decarbonylation and decarboxylation of the fatty acids; and (3) an isomerization-cracking section with a hydrogenation catalytic reactor coupled with a two-phase flash drum is used to produce bio-jet diesel with the suitable fuel features required by the international standards. Intensive simulations were carried out and the effect of several operating variables of the three sections (triglyceride-water feed ratio, oleic acid-petro-diesel feed ratio, hydrogen consumption) on the global intensified process was studied and the optimal operating conditions of the intensified process for the production of bio-jet diesel were achieved.