H-Bio

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H-Bio is an oil-refining processes which involves converting vegetable oil into high-quality diesel via hydrogenation. Hydrogenation is a chemical reaction, in which a substance is treated with Hydrogen, thus resulting in a new product. In H-Bio, Hydrogen is added to vegetable oil and mineral oil, making a usable diesel that is made up of diesel oil and 10% vegetable oil. [1] The process was first developed in 2006 by the Brazilian, state-owned and gas company, Petrobras, and was primarily established for commercial use. [2]

Contents

H-Bio can be used to power many cars that already use diesel, therefore, H-Bio can be widely sold to car owners in local fuel stations. Moreover, the process has many advantages when compared to traditional methods, but also has drawbacks. H-Bio has been tested and confirmed as a viable method to supply diesel globally.

Process

The procedure requires that the diesel pass through the Hydrodesulfurization Chamber, the Cracking Unit, and mix with HDS Light Cycle Oil. The Hydrodesulfurization Chamber removes the majority of the Sulfur content found in the diesel. The Cracking Unit breaks up the hydrocarbons, and then H-Bio is mixed with great amounts of poor diesel fuel. The process consists of:

Hydrodesulfurization

Diesel first passes through the distillation unit to undergo hydrodesulfurization (HDS). Hydrodesulfurization is the process of removing sulfur from petroleum-based products by chemically combining it with hydrogen, resulting in hydrogen sulfide. Hydrogen and sulfur are combined in a hydrodesulfurization reactor, usually under the presence of a metal catalyst, where pressure is added to the bond and it is heated in temperatures ranging from 300° to 400° Celsius (572° to 752° Fahrenheit), resulting in Hydrogen Sulfide molecules that are not included in the diesel. [3]

Cracking Unit

The diesel is then passed through the Cracking Unit. The Cracking Unit is a device that breaks up the hydrocarbons, that make up the diesel, into smaller sizes. Companies break up the hydrocarbons so that they make the most petroleum-based products, with the amount of supply they have. [4]

Mixing with HDS Light Cycle Oil

Next, the diesel is mixed with HDS light cycle oil (LCO). [1] The HDS light cycle oil is a poor diesel fuel due to its high sulfur content and poor engine ignition performance, thus it is mixed with H-Bio. The two are combined to produce the maximum amount of high-quality fuel possible, with the given amount of supply. When HDS Light Cycle Oil and H-Bio are blended, the fluid viscosity is modified for maximum performance, resulting in high-quality diesel. The resulting diesel has great ignition performance with very little sulfur content. [5]

Finally, the diesel is mixed with other components that do not require the hydrogenation process and this mixture results in H-Bio. [1]

Application

H-Bio can be easily implemented into society. H-Bio is compatible with any vehicle that already uses diesel as its main fuel source, in which no modifications to the engine or transmission are necessary. Additionally, H-Bio can be sold to consumers in local fuel stations, unlike its counterpart, biodiesel. [6]

Pros

H-Bio has many aspects that are very beneficial. Some advantages include car efficiency, diesel characteristics that enhance performance, and fewer green house emissions. The main advantages of the H-Bio are that:

Cons

H-Bio also has drawbacks, which include the high production costs and green house gases emitted when the diesel is burned.

Future outlook

H-Bio has achieved industrial testing that uses soybean oil to produce diesel. The results proved that the process is more than capable of being mass-produced and implemented into society. Moreover, Petrobras has filed for patents to the National Industrial Property Institute (Brazil)  [ pt ] (INPI), to mass-produce H-Bio and distribute it globally. The short-term goal is to create two refineries and eventually expand to five refineries in the long term. Next, the company will test this process, with different types of vegetable oils, in other refineries, and lastly, they will analyze the results. [1]

Related Research Articles

Diesel fuel Liquid fuel used in diesel engines

Generally speaking, diesel fuel, also called diesel oil, is any liquid fuel specifically designed for use in a diesel engine, a type of internal combustion engine in which fuel ignition takes place without a spark as a result of compression of the inlet air and then injection of fuel. Therefore, diesel fuel needs good compression ignition characteristics.

Biofuel Type of biological fuel produced from biomass from which energy is derived

Biofuel is a fuel that is produced through contemporary processes from biomass, rather than by the very slow geological processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels, such as oil. Since biomass technically can be used as a fuel directly, some people use the terms biomass and biofuel interchangeably. More often than not, however, the word biomass simply denotes the biological raw material the fuel is made of, or some form of thermally/chemically altered solid end product, like torrefied pellets or briquettes.

Biodiesel Fuel made from vegetable oils or animal fats

Biodiesel is a form of diesel fuel derived from plants or animals and consisting of long-chain fatty acid esters. It is typically made by chemically reacting lipids such as animal fat (tallow), soybean oil, or some other vegetable oil with an alcohol, producing a methyl, ethyl or propyl ester by the process of transesterification.

Oil refinery Facility that processes crude oil

An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum is transformed and refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, liquefied petroleum gas and petroleum naphtha. Petrochemicals feedstock like ethylene and propylene can also be produced directly by cracking crude oil without the need of using refined products of crude oil such as naphtha. The crude oil feedstock has typically been processed by an oil production plant. There is usually an oil depot at or near an oil refinery for the storage of incoming crude oil feedstock as well as bulk liquid products. In 2020, the total capacity of global refineries for crude oil was about 101.2 million barrels per day.

RP-1 Highly refined form of kerosene used as rocket fuel

RP-1 (alternatively, Rocket Propellant-1 or Refined Petroleum-1) is a highly refined form of kerosene outwardly similar to jet fuel, used as rocket fuel. RP-1 provides a lower specific impulse than liquid hydrogen (LH2), but is cheaper, is stable at room temperature, and presents a lower explosion hazard. RP-1 is far denser than LH2, giving it a higher energy density (though its specific energy is lower). RP-1 also has a fraction of the toxicity and carcinogenic hazards of hydrazine, another room-temperature liquid fuel.

Fuel oil Petroleum product burned to generate power

Fuel oil is a fraction obtained from the distillation of petroleum. It includes distillates and residues.

Cracking (chemistry) Process whereby complex organic molecules are broken down into simpler molecules

In petrochemistry, petroleum geology and organic chemistry, cracking is the process whereby complex organic molecules such as kerogens or long-chain hydrocarbons are broken down into simpler molecules such as light hydrocarbons, by the breaking of carbon-carbon bonds in the precursors. The rate of cracking and the end products are strongly dependent on the temperature and presence of catalysts. Cracking is the breakdown of a large alkane into smaller, more useful alkenes. Simply put, hydrocarbon cracking is the process of breaking a long chain of hydrocarbons into short ones. This process requires high temperatures.

Alternative fuel Non-conventional yet reasonably viable fuels

Alternative fuel, known as non-conventional and advanced fuels, are any materials or substances that can be used as fuels, other than conventional fuels like; fossil fuels, as well as nuclear materials such as uranium and thorium, as well as artificial radioisotope fuels that are made in nuclear reactors.

Hydrogenolysis is a chemical reaction whereby a carbon–carbon or carbon–heteroatom single bond is cleaved or undergoes lysis (breakdown) by hydrogen. The heteroatom may vary, but it usually is oxygen, nitrogen, or sulfur. A related reaction is hydrogenation, where hydrogen is added to the molecule, without cleaving bonds. Usually hydrogenolysis is conducted catalytically using hydrogen gas.

Liquid fuel

Liquid fuels are combustible or energy-generating molecules that can be harnessed to create mechanical energy, usually producing kinetic energy; they also must take the shape of their container. It is the fumes of liquid fuels that are flammable instead of the fluid. Most liquid fuels in widespread use are derived from fossil fuels; however, there are several types, such as hydrogen fuel, ethanol, and biodiesel, which are also categorized as a liquid fuel. Many liquid fuels play a primary role in transportation and the economy.

The Fischer–Tropsch process is a collection of chemical reactions that converts a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen or water gas into liquid hydrocarbons. These reactions occur in the presence of metal catalysts, typically at temperatures of 150–300 °C (302–572 °F) and pressures of one to several tens of atmospheres. The process was first developed by Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Kohlenforschung in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany, in 1925.

Steam reforming Method for producing hydrogen and carbon monoxide from hydrocarbon fuels

Steam reforming or steam methane reforming is a method for producing syngas by reaction of hydrocarbons with water. Commonly natural gas is the feedstock. The main purpose of this technology is hydrogen production. The reaction is represented by this equilibrium:

Catalytic reforming is a chemical process used to convert petroleum refinery naphthas distilled from crude oil into high-octane liquid products called reformates, which are premium blending stocks for high-octane gasoline. The process converts low-octane linear hydrocarbons (paraffins) into branched alkanes (isoparaffins) and cyclic naphthenes, which are then partially dehydrogenated to produce high-octane aromatic hydrocarbons. The dehydrogenation also produces significant amounts of byproduct hydrogen gas, which is fed into other refinery processes such as hydrocracking. A side reaction is hydrogenolysis, which produces light hydrocarbons of lower value, such as methane, ethane, propane and butanes.

Amine gas treating, also known as amine scrubbing, gas sweetening and acid gas removal, refers to a group of processes that use aqueous solutions of various alkylamines (commonly referred to simply as amines) to remove hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and carbon dioxide (CO2) from gases. It is a common unit process used in refineries, and is also used in petrochemical plants, natural gas processing plants and other industries.

The oil and gas industry is usually divided into three major sectors: upstream, midstream, and downstream. The downstream sector is the refining of petroleum crude oil and the processing and purifying of raw natural gas, as well as the marketing and distribution of products derived from crude oil and natural gas. The downstream sector reaches consumers through products such as gasoline or petrol, kerosene, jet fuel, diesel oil, heating oil, fuel oils, lubricants, waxes, asphalt, natural gas, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as well as naphtha and hundreds of petrochemicals.

Petroleum coke Solid carbon-rich material

Petroleum coke, abbreviated coke or petcoke, is a final carbon-rich solid material that derives from oil refining, and is one type of the group of fuels referred to as cokes. Petcoke is the coke that, in particular, derives from a final cracking process—a thermo-based chemical engineering process that splits long chain hydrocarbons of petroleum into shorter chains—that takes place in units termed coker units. Stated succinctly, coke is the "carbonization product of high-boiling hydrocarbon fractions obtained in petroleum processing ". Petcoke is also produced in the production of synthetic crude oil (syncrude) from bitumen extracted from Canada’s oil sands and from Venezuela's Orinoco oil sands.

Synthetic fuel Fuel from carbon monoxide and hydrogen

Synthetic fuel or synfuel is a liquid fuel, or sometimes gaseous fuel, obtained from either syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, or a mixture of carbon dioxide and hydrogen. The syngas could be derived from gasification of solid feedstocks such as coal or biomass or by reforming of natural gas. Alternatively a mixture of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and green hydrogen could be used for an almost climate neutral production of synthetic fuels.

Hydrodesulfurization (HDS) is a catalytic chemical process widely used to remove sulfur (S) from natural gas and from refined petroleum products, such as gasoline or petrol, jet fuel, kerosene, diesel fuel, and fuel oils. The purpose of removing the sulfur, and creating products such as ultra-low-sulfur diesel, is to reduce the sulfur dioxide emissions that result from using those fuels in automotive vehicles, aircraft, railroad locomotives, ships, gas or oil burning power plants, residential and industrial furnaces, and other forms of fuel combustion.

Vegetable oils as alternative energy

Vegetable oils are increasingly used as a substitute for fossil fuels. Vegetable oils are the basis of biodiesel, which can be used like conventional diesel. Some vegetable oil blends are used in unmodified vehicles, but straight vegetable oil needs specially prepared vehicles which have a method of heating the oil to reduce its viscosity and surface tension. Another alternative is vegetable oil refining.

Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) is a biofuel made by the hydrocracking or hydrogenation of vegetable oil. Hydrocracking breaks big molecules into smaller ones using hydrogen while hydrogenation adds hydrogen to molecules. These methods can be used to create substitutes for gasoline, diesel, propane, kerosene and other chemical feedstock. Diesel fuel produced from these sources is known as green diesel or renewable diesel.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "M-Bio: The New Diesel Petrobras". biodieselbr.com. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Petrobras Develops Hydrogenation Process to Produce Diesel Fuel with Vegetable Oil". greencarcongress.com. Retrieved 29 October 2014.
  3. 1 2 "What is Hydrodesulfurization?". wisegeek.com. Retrieved 29 October 2014.
  4. ↑ "What is a Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit?". wisegeek.com. Retrieved 29 October 2014.
  5. ↑ Thakkar, Vasant P.; Abdo, Suheil F.; Gembicki, Visnja A.; Mc Gehee, James F. "LCO Upgrading". uop.com. UOP LLC. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
  6. 1 2 3 Khalip, Andrei. "Petrobras H-Bio Output on Hold Due to High Prices". reuters.com. Retrieved 29 October 2014.
  7. ↑ Guerreiro, Amilcar. "The Technological Dimension of Biofuel" (PDF). unctad.orf. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 November 2014. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
  8. ↑ Majewski, W. Addy. "What are Diesel Emissions". dieselnet.com. dieselnet.com. Retrieved 29 October 2014.
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