S15: Conversion of Algal Oil to Fungible Fuels

Algae have shown great promise for the production of lipid based oil feedstocks for conversion to fungible transportation fuels.  UOP has developed a catalytic process for the hydrodeoxygenation/decarboxylation of algal lipid based oils based upon the ENI-UOP EcoFining^TM process.  UOP has participated in a number of projects evaluating the conversion of algal oils, both triglycerides (TAG) and fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) to fully fungible transportation fuels such as Green Diesel and Green Jet.  Algal oil quality, however, was found to be inconsistent depending on both the source of the algal oil and processing conditions.  TAG oil extracted from heterotrophically grown algae was shown to contain very few contaminants and was converted to high cetane and ultra low sulfur diesel at high yield using UOP technology.  TAG oil extracted from algae cultivated in large, open pond systems had moderate levels of contaminants present, but was converted to on-spec bio-synthetic paraffinic kerosene (Bio-SPK) jet fuel using UOP’s Green Jet process.  TAG oil extracted from wild algal biomass grown on wastewater treatment lagoons had high levels of contaminants but was also successfully converted to both Green Diesel and Green Jet.  Based on the work to date, it appears that most or all algal oils can be converted to fuels based with appropriate processing of the crude oil coupled with UOP conversion technology.