(206d) Sustainable Aviation Fuel from Municipal Solid Waste Via Methanol Pathway

The U.S. aviation sector has adopted a long-term aspirational goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Due to aircrafts weight and size constraints, electrification may not be a viable option for commercial aviation in the mid-term. Therefore, the sector will heavily rely on the use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) to meet its emission reduction goal with an expected market of 3 billion gallons per year by 2030 and 35 billion gallons per year by 2050. The growing demand for SAF will require a diversification in SAF production by identifying innovative pathways to leverage alternative feedstocks.

Producing SAF from oxygenated intermediates, especially renewable methanol, has gain increasing interest in the past few years. Unlike other alcohols, renewable methanol can be efficiently produced from a variety of alternative renewable carbon sources using syngas as the intermediate.

In this study we analyze the feasibility of producing SAF from municipal solid waste (MSW). The pathway includes conversion of MSW to syngas via gasification, production of methanol from syngas, conversion of methanol to olefins, subsequent oligomerization of olefins, olefin hydroprocessing for fuel production, and separation of final products. We propose an innovative catalytic approach characterized by a bifunctional Ni/SiO₂-Al₂O₃ (metal)/Zeolites (acid) catalyst for single-step co-oligomerization of C₂ and C₃₊ olefins. The proposed approach has a demonstrated single-pass conversion of approximately 92% for C₂ and over 97% for ≥C₃ olefins, and a selectivity of about 74% towards the production of jet-range products. A chemical process simulation, techno-economic analysis and life cycle assessment are performed to evaluate the technical, economic, and environmental feasibility of the proposed process.