2022 Annual Meeting
(25e) HTL of Wet Wastes for Sustainable Aviation Fuel
Authors
Michael R. Thorson - Presenter, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Daniel Santosa, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Senthil Subramaniam, Northwest National Laboratory
Andrew J. Schmidt, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Karthikeyan Ramasamy, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
John Norton, University of Michigan
Xavi Fonoll Almansa, Great Lakes Water Authority
Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) uses heat and pressure to liquefy the organic matter in biomass/waste feedstocks to produce biocrude. Hydrotreating converts the biocrude to transportation fuels, including SAF. This presentation will investigate the potential for utilizing wet-waste HTL biocrude as an SAF feedstock. Herein, several biocrude samples were produced from food waste, sewage sludge, and fats, oils, and grease, and subsequently hydrotreated and distilled to produce SAF samples. The fuels (both undistilled and distilled samples) were analyzed via elemental and 2D-GC-MS. Herein, we report the Tier α and β analysis of an SAF sample derived originally from a biocrude. The upgraded biocrude in the SAF ranges exhibits key fuel properties, including carbon number distribution, distillation profile, surface tension, density, viscosity, heat of combustion, and flash point, which all fall within the required range for aviation fuel. This presentation will cover both the attractive features of SAF from HTL as well as the remaining technical challenges.