Perspective on the Deep Hydrotreating of Renewable and Non-Renewable Oils

Abstract

To meet not only the increased demand of liquid transportation fuel but also the stringent environmental legislation centered on anthropogenic emissions, renewable resources (i.e., not depleted by use) and low-grade feedstocks need to be processed, since the reserves and quality of the feeds available are markedly declining. In this chapter, an overview on the hydrotreating of renewable and non-renewable feeds for producing ultraclean transportation liquid fuels is given. The fundamentals and factors that affect the generation of ultraclean fuels and bio-fuels are discussed in an integrated perspective. The authors include not only the current understanding of the hydrotreating process but also the challenges for the valorization of non-renewable and renewable feedstocks with high content of heteroatoms and unsaturated poly-aggregate compounds (asphaltenes and lignin). The importance to develop advanced catalysts based on abundant metals, rather than precious metals, and multifunctional properties with sufficient activity and selectivity in hydrodeoxygenation of bio-oils is outlined.