(745f) Theoretical Yields and Properties of Hydrotreated Renewable Diesel From Common Lipid Feedstocks

Rising petroleum prices and growing concerns about greenhouse gas emissions have led to increased biofuel usage globally.  In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Renewable Fuel Standard specifies annual target quantities of various bio-derived fuels for inclusion in the U.S. fuel supply, including two types of biomass-based diesel: biodiesel and hydrotreated renewable diesel (HRD).  Although biodiesel has been studied extensively and has been in commercial production and use for a relatively long time, HRD fuels have only recently been produced in the United States in commercial quantities and little is known about the physical properties, feedstock requirements, and theoretical yields of HRD.

This work presents a model that uses pure triglycerides and hydrogen as its feedstocks for HRD production from three common lipid feedstocks. The HRD model is derived from mass balances and produces theoretical feedstock requirements, fundamental production constraints, and yield estimates for HRD and its co-products.  The corresponding theoretical limitations for biodiesel are also included.

Key fuel properties, including density, viscosity, flash point, and cloud point, are predicted using literature methods for the theoretical HRD fuels determined by the model.  The analysis also includes estimates of the net energy content and renewable energy content of each of the fuels considered.