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Ghith Al Shaal, Christoph Hauber, Ioan-Teodor Trotus, and Fabian Schneider, hte GmbH, Germany, explore the utilisation of pyrolysis oils in the production of fuels and chemicals.
owadays, economies and industries are heavily reliant on limited fossil-based resources that do not contribute to a circular economy. In this context, a continuous sustained effort is required to shift gear towards more sustainable and renewable resources. An increasing number of governments and companies have taken the initiative to integrate circular economy in their politics and regulations to minimise their carbon footprint. Two essential factors in this transition process are the utilisation of alternative feedstocks and the
minimisation of process waste by increasing process efficiency and recycling process waste. Both factors are highly entwined, since the waste of one process can be the alternative feedstock for the other process. In a previous article that featured in the September 2020 issue of Hydrocarbon Engineering, one instance was shown of hte supporting research to minimise the carbon footprint through the use of bio-derived synthesis gas followed by Fischer Tropsch synthesis and hydrocracking of the wax products to produce synthetic fuels.1 While this approach is elegant, it is also very energy intensive. In this article, an
HYDROCARBON 29
ENGINEERING
September 2021
