Screening suitable refinery distillates for blending with HTL bio-crude and evaluating the co-processing potential at petroleum refineries

Currently, the major obstacle in the utilization of biofuels produced from the thermochemical processes for the co-refining approach is miscibility with conventional crude oil followed by co-processing to reduce the high oxygen content. The present study attempted to find the appropriate refinery distillate to blend with bio-crude produced via hydrothermal liquefaction to determine the desired process conditions for miscible blend formulation. Boiling point distribution curves revealed that hydrotreated heavy gas oil was found to be the suitable refinery distillate and the desired process conditions were established for 1, 2, 5, 10, 15, and 20 wt% blends formulation. Further, 10 wt% blend was hydrotreated to evaluate the hydrodeoxygenation ability of the commercial catalysts such as CoMo/gamma-Al2O3 and NiMo/gamma-Al2O3 to reduce the oxygen content. The physicochemical properties of the formulated blends showed that proper mixing took place between bio-crude and hydrotreated heavy gas oil. Hydrotreatment (via co-processing) of the 10 wt% blend revealed that the commercial catalysts can reduce the oxygen content in the range of 21-28%.