Within the present contribution we highlight the feasibility of standard refinery units for the production of biofuels from different biomass-derived feedstock. The energy densification of biomass, as well as it's logistics and incorporation within the refinery supply chain is thoroughly discussed. Likewise, special attention is focused on the catalytic cracking and hydrotreating of triglyceride-rich biomass feedstock, which is probably the most suitable one for co-processing in conventional refinery conversion units. However, the opportunities of other highly oxygenated feedstocks such as pyrolysis oils and sugars are also discussed. Conversion of different feedstocks into conventional liquid fuels by coupling of aqueous phase reforming (APR) with catalytic systems typical of standard petroleum refineries is also evaluated. Thus, here we review the chemistry, catalysis and challenges involved in the production of biofuels from biomass in conventional refineries. energy demands. Nowadays, most fuels and energy come from fossil energy resources, but environmental concerns together with the depletion of crude oil resources, and consequent increasing prices of this raw material, are becoming important driving forces encouraging the search for new feedstocks, as alternative to crude oil, to meet the increasing energy demand. Many different possibilities have been reported in the literature. However, such a substitution involves important requirements, like the renewable nature of the raw material to ensure

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Vegetable oils (crude palm oil and crude soybean oil), nonedible animal fats, and waste cooking oil (WCO) were mixed with a standard gas oil and tested under fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) conditions in a short-contact-time microactivity reactor using an industrial FCC equilibrium catalyst. Under the reaction conditions tested in this work, triglyceride molecules are completely transformed into water, CO2, CO, and a mixture of hydrocarbons. The presence of a triglyceride-based biomass in the feedstock of a FCC unit reduces the yield toward liquid products and enhances gas and coke formation. Likewise, the cracking of oil and fats in the FCC conditions increases aromatic hydrocarbon formation. This fact comes from oxygen removal of the initial triglycerides to form water as the principal oxygenated compound, which requires the presence of hydrogen molecules coming from the transformation of hydrocarbons into olefins. These olefins, in the severe reaction conditions under study, will tend to form aromatic hydrocarbons. Likewise, preliminary catalytic results described in this work show that unsaturated renewable raw materials (such as soybean oil or WCO) lead to an increase in the concentration of aromatic compounds for the liquid phase as compared to that found for the most saturated feedstocks (palm oil and animal fats). Moreover, a slightly higher yield toward the liquid products and lower gaseous compound formation are also evidenced with the most unsaturated triglyceride-based feed.

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Hierarchical Beta zeolites with different Si/Al molar ratios, synthesized by crystallization of silanized protozeolitic units, were investigated in the liquid-phase Beckmann rearrangement of cyclohexanone and cyclododecanone oximes.

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