ATR combines the advantages of both SMR and partial oxi- dation, offering a high hydrogen yield, rapid reaction kinet- ics, and reduced reactor number and size. OLI Systems provides unique tools for designing and safely operating grey and blue hydrogen facilities. These tools encompass a wide range of capabilities, including modelling for various production processes (SMR, ATR, TRM, CPO) for hydrogen storage, transportation, and CCUS. These tools offer rigorous mass balance, corrosion, and scaling risk assessment, considering the reactivity and phase equilibria of impurities and their potential negative impacts on plant safety and reliability. Hydrogen as well as CO₂ dense phase, especially when containing impurities, can promote corrosion in materials such as steel, pipelines, and storage tanks. Impurities like water vapour, oxygen, sulphur compounds, nitrogen compounds, and carbon monoxide can react with hydrogen to form corrosive sub- stances, making the selection of corrosion-resistant materi- als essential for hydrogen transportation infrastructure. Q What contaminants removal capabilities are available to expand the SAF feedstock base? A Yvon Bernard, Business Development Manager, Renewable Product Line, Yvon.BERNARD@axens. net, Yoeugourthen Hamlaoui, Global Market Manager, Yoeugourthen.HAMLAOUI@axens.net, Alexandre Javidi, Alcohol to Jet Business & Technology Manager, Alexandre. JAVIDI@axens.net, Axens u For SAF production from low-carbon ethanol through Axens’ proprietary Jetanol solution, one of the key Axens features (Atol) is an innovative and profitable technology due to its flexibility in handling a wide range of feedstocks. During the technology development, Axens, along with its partners IFPEN and TotalEnergies, developed customised analytical methods for mastering the ethanol impurities that are critical for this application. Extensive testing in pilot plants was also performed to confirm the technical ability to process virtually all kinds of ethanol: bioethanol (1G) or advanced ethanol (2G) and waste-based ethanol (from blast furnace flue gas and municipal solid waste) at various levels of dilution. Furthermore, Atol relies on its superior catalyst, which has proven to have a high tolerance to feedstock impurities and is fully regenerable. Atol catalyst provides even more flex - ibility by allowing the handling of feedstock quality fluctua - tions. In terms of ethanol, impurities are well-known and can be handled with pretreatment solutions. v For SAF production from lignocellulosic biomass via gas- ification route (BioTfueL), impurities are dealt with in three steps. The first is the pretreatment step, which ensures the removal of foreign contaminants such as glass, rocks, plas- tics, and moisture. Additionally, the pretreatment homoge- nises the biomass through drying and torrefaction: this step is key to enabling the utilisation of a wide array of lignocel- lulosic biomass, from agricultural residues to energy crops and forestry residues. In the second step, biomass gasifi - cation technology removes the inorganic (mineral, metals) and chlorine from the biomass.
The remaining S- or N-based impurities are removed in the syngas phase through well-known separation technologies. Its smart and flexible contaminant removal scheme allows BioTfueL to operate with any kind of biomass. This feature means more resilience for the project and gives significant flexibility in operation to the customers. Some additional feed - stock, like municipal solid wastes, brings other opportunities but requires additional pretreatment and purification steps to deal with the heterogeneity of the feedstock and impurities. w For SAF production from CO₂ and H₂, purity require - ments are often regulated by the downstream unit, mainly the Fischer-Tropsch reaction section for the e-fuel pro- duction. Axens dispatches its wide portfolio to cope with the common impurities found in CO₂ feedstock, including adsorbents for impurities trapping as well as washing sec- tions, to bring the feed to the desired specifications. The final scheme of purification will depend on CO₂ project qual - ity and is typically adapted on a case-by-case approach. Typical contaminants for FT catalyst are (sulphur, organic nitrogen, metal, NOx). Axens’ integrated scheme takes advantage of its expertise and know-how to optimise the sizing and positioning of such purification requirements. x For SAF production from vegetable oils with Vegan technology, pretreatment is also needed. Phospholipids and metals (Fe, Mg, K, Ca, Na) were the main contami- nants present in the first-generation vegetable oil (soybean oil, palm oil, rapeseed oil) and could be abated with well- established edible oil refining technologies. The processing of second-generation waste oil (used cooking oil, animal fats) brings a wide variety of contaminants, including the same contaminants as vegetable oil, but at higher content. Pretreatment technologies are adapting to remove con- taminants to acceptable levels. Higher nitrogen, sulphur and chlorine are also observed in these new feeds: nitro- gen/sulphur are partially removed by pretreatment and then converted by the hydrotreatment, inorganic chloride is com- pletely removed by pretreatment, whereas organic chloride slips to the hydroprocessing unit, which has an impact on the unit design and metallurgy selection. Polyethylene found mostly in animal fats should be removed in a dedi- cated section of the lipid feed pretreatment. A Andres Coy, Business Development Manager SAF, Syngas and Fuels, Andres.Coy@clariant.com, Rainer Albert Rakoczy, Technology Advisor Fuel and Hydrocarbons, Syngas and Fuels, Rainer.Rakoczy@clariant.com, Clariant Catalysts The potential feedstocks and process routes toward SAF are constantly increasing. Any SAF as a final Jet fuel blend - ing component must meet very stringent specifications, as aviation fuels are the most delicate fuel products in terms of quality and stability. In addition, most of these processes need optimum reactant properties to achieve the most effi - cient SAF yields. Clariant offers a broad variety of catalysts and adsorbents technology to clean most feed and inter- mediate species in gas or liquid phase for these SAF pro- cessing technologies. This technology is primarily based on long-time experience in handling non-benign and demand- ing feed streams even in industries beyond refinery.
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PTQ Q1 2024
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