Design and performance evaluation of integrated system of hydrotreating and hydrogen generation for bio-hydrogenated diesel fuel production from palm oil

Abstract

This research studied the simulations of the integrated systems between of hydrotreating and hydrogen generation with various selectivity of deoxygenation (DO) pathways (i.e. decarboxylation (DCO2), hydrodecarbonylation (HDCO), and hydrodeoxygenation (HDO)). Two integrated systems were proposed i.e. 1) integrated system between single-step hydrotreating and propane steam reforming (as called “single-step integrated system”) and 2) integrated system between two-step hydrotreating (hydrolysis+DO) and glycerol steam reforming (as called “two-step integrated system”). Results revealed that, among DO pathways, DCO2 exhibited the lowest total minimum energy requirement (total MER) and the highest total efficiency for both integrated systems mainly due to lower electricity requirement to compress H2. In addition, single-step integrated system offered significantly lower total MER than that of two-step integrated system because it required much lower cooling and heating utilities. In the case of triolein feed, H2 surplus can be achieved only for DCO2 pathway with two-step integrated system. On the contrary, in the case of tripalmitin, saturated feedstock, H2 surplus can be achieved from DCO2 and HDCO in both integrated systems. In summarize, DCO2 pathway of single-step integrated system offers the highest total efficiency which tripalmitin, as expected, offeres the highest total efficiency (89.3%) while triolein offeres 86.7% since less amount H2 is required.