May 2024Editorial Comment

HP Tagline--Column--Editorial CommentBoosting bio-content in processing feeds: Challenges and solutions driving the energy transitionLee Nichols, Vice President, Content/Editor-in-ChiefAround the world, nations have instituted pathways to reduce emissions within their economies. These initiatives include various investments in carbon mitigation strategies such as boosting domestic renewables capacity, utilizing low-/zero-carbon fuels for power generation (e.g., green hydrogen), adding carbon capture technologies to projects and industrial installations, and increasing bio-content in transportation fuels, among others. To limit emissions from the transportation sector, many nations have enacted new regulations to increase bio-feedstock blending within motor fuels—this trend is forecast to significantly expand over the next several years. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), global biofuel demand is forecast to increase by nearly 40 B liters from 2023–2028. This represents a nearly 30% increase in biofuels demand vs. the previous 5-yr period.¹ Approximately 67% of demand growth will be in renewable diesel and ethanol, with the remaining 33% being biodiesel and biojet fuel—the emerging economies of Brazil, India and Indonesia represent the largest increase in demand over the forecast period (FIG. 1).¹Editorial-comment-Fig-01However, the increased use of biofeedstock does not come without challenges, including sourcing enough bio-content for processing, investment costs to build and operate these facilities, supply chain issues and processing challenges, among others. Regardless, operators around the world are investing in new capacity and/or increasing bio-content blending to produce biofuels and renewable fuels (e.g., renewable diesel). Due to the forecasted increase in biofuels and renewable fuels, Hydrocarbon Processing dedicates a sizable amount of content space to this topic. This issue’s Special Focus section details several articles on the latest advancements in biofuels, renewable fuels and other coprocessing pathways to produce lower-carbon fuels and chemicals. These include the following articles:

Connect the dots to bankability with low-carbon bio-hubs for sustainable fuels and chemicals: This article details a novel technology that monetizes a wide range of biomass residues, captures carbon and produces renewable products such as advanced ethanol, bio-methane and green electricity.

Why poultry fat is emerging as a solution for the renewable energy industry’s increasing need for diverse biofuel feedstocks: Although many animal and waste fats have been increasingly utilized for biofuels, one source that has not been heavily utilized is poultry fat. This work highlights important recent advancements in processing poultry fat into renewable fuels.

A novel process to help refinery operations comply with the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS): The RFS is a regulation that requires refineries in the U.S. to output a certain percentage of their fuel from renewable sources, such as plants or animal waste. This article details a novel process that can provide a reliable and cost-effective source of biomass for future biofuels/renewable fuels production.

Tackle operational challenges with FCC coprocessing applications: Refiners are exploring the co-feeding of alternative feedstocks, including renewable and recyclable crude oils, as a means of lowering the carbon footprint of their products. However, these types of feeds do not come without challenges, such as additional contaminants, instability and miscibility issues, and elevated acidity that can lead to operational challenges in the fluid catalytic cracking unit. This article provides an overview of the different sustainable feedstocks and possible solutions to overcome these challenges, including feed pretreatment, operational adjustments and hardware design options.

As more countries increase biofuel blending mandates and enact new regulations to produce renewable fuels and biofuels, further challenges to supply chains and processing operations will emerge. However, new techniques and technologies continue to be developed to provide solutions to these challenges, and this issue is a testament to the latest advancements in this field. HPLITERATURE CITED

IEA, Renewables 2023: Analysis and forecast to 2028, January 2024, online: https://www.iea.org/reports/renewables-2023

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