To produce diesel fuel from renewable organic material such as vegetable oils, it has for a number of years been known that triglycerides can be hydrogenated into linear alkanes in a refinery hydrotreating unit over conventional sulfided hydrodesulfurization catalysts. A number of new reactions occur in the hydrotreater, when a biological component is introduced, and experiments were conducted to obtain a more detailed understanding of these mechanisms. The reaction pathways were studied both in model compound tests and in real feed tests with mixtures of straight-run gas oil and rapeseed oil. In both sets of experiments, the hydrogenation of the oxygen containing compounds was observed to proceed either via a hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) route or via a decarboxylation route. The detailed pathway of the HDO route was further illuminated by studying the hydroprocessing of methyl laurate into n-dodecane. The observed reaction intermediates did not support a simple stepwise hydrogenation of the aldehyde formed after hydrogenation of the connecting oxygen in the ester. Instead, it is proposed that the aldehyde formed is enolized before further hydrogenation. The existence of an enol intermediate was further corroborated by the observation that a ketone lacking a-hydrogen (that cannot be directly enolized) had a much lower reactivity than a corresponding ketone with a-hydrogen. In real feed tests, the complete conversion of rapeseed oil into linear alkanes at mild hydrotreating conditions was demonstrated. From the gas and liquid yields, the relative rates of HDO and decarboxylation were calculated in good agreement with the observed distribution of the n-C 17 /n-C 18 and n-C 21 /n-C 22 formed. The hydrogen consumption associated with each route is deduced, and it was shown that hydrogen consumed in the water-gas-shift and methanization reactions may add significant hydrogen consumption to the decarboxylation route. The products formed exhibited high cetane values and low densities. The challenges of introducing triglycerides in conventional hydrotreating units are discussed. It is concluded that hydrotreating offers a robust and flexible process for converting a wide variety of alternative feedstocks into a green diesel fuel that is directly compatible with existing fuel infrastructure and engine technology.

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The world’s energy consumption is increasing constantly due to the growing population of the world. The increasing energy consumption has a negative effect on the fossil fuel reserves of the world. Hydrogen has the potential to provide energy for all our needs by making use of fossil fuel such as natural gas and nuclear-based electricity. Hydrogen can be produced by reforming methane with carbon dioxide as the oxidizing agent. Hydrogen can be produced in a Plasma-arc reforming unit making use of the heat energy generated by a 500 MWt Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR). The reaction in the unit takes place stoichiometrically in the absence of a catalyst. Steam can be added to the feed stream together with the Carbon Dioxide, which make it possible to control the H2/CO ratio in the synthesis gas between 1/1 and 3/1. This ratio of H2/CO in the synthesis gas is suitable to be used as feed gas to almost any chemical and petrochemical process. To increase the hydrogen production further, the Water-Gas Shift Reaction can be applied. A techno-economic analysis was performed on the non-catalytic plasma-arc reforming process. The capital cost of the plant is estimated at $463 million for the production of 1132 million Nm3/year of hydrogen. The production cost of hydrogen is in the order of $12.81 per GJ depending on the natural gas cost and the price of electricity.

The utilization of alternate sources of energy is becoming more important due to the constantly growing world-wide demand for energy. The production of hydrogen via the Hybrid Sulphur process is a possible alternative that may contribute to alleviating the pressure on energy resources. The current field of interest is to investigate the operation of the sulphuric acid decomposition reactor operating at pressure ranges between 8 and 9 MPa. The reduction of SO3 to SO2 is, however, favoured at low pressures while maintaining high operating temperatures. Considering this, the need to investigate the possibility of operating at lower operating pressures is important in striving for higher process efficiencies. The proposed decomposition reactor is a multi-stage reactor system operated adiabatically with inter-stage heating in order to simplify the reactor design and improve the over-all conversion and efficiency of the process. At a pressure of 8–9 MPa and temperature of 900°C, the maximum conversion of SO3 to SO2 that can be achieved is between 48% and 54%. The proposed multi-stage reactor system has 5 packed bed (catalyst) reactor stages with 4 intermediate heat exchangers, and by lowering the operating pressure to 3 kPa, a maximum conversion of 72% could be achieved. The viability of the HyS process mainly depends on the performance of the SO3 decomposition reactor.