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 °C (572 to 752 °F), 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

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diesel fuel</span> Liquid fuel used in diesel engines

Diesel fuel, also called diesel oil, heavy oil (historically) or simply diesel, 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biofuel</span> Type of biological fuel

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biodiesel</span> Fuel made from vegetable oils or animal fats

Biodiesel is a renewable biofuel, a form of diesel fuel, derived from biological sources like vegetable oils, animal fats, or recycled greases, and consisting of long-chain fatty acid esters. It is typically made from fats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oil refinery</span> Facility that processes crude oil

An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum is transformed and refined into products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, liquefied petroleum gas and petroleum naphtha. Petrochemical 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fuel oil</span> Petroleum product burned to generate motive power or heat

Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum. Such oils include distillates and residues. Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil, marine fuel oil (MFO), furnace oil (FO), gas oil (gasoil), heating oils, diesel fuel, and others.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alternative fuel</span> Fuels from sources other than fossil fuels

Alternative fuels, also known as non-conventional and advanced fuels, are fuels derived from sources other than petroleum. Alternative fuels include gaseous fossil fuels like propane, natural gas, methane, and ammonia; biofuels like biodiesel, bioalcohol, and refuse-derived fuel; and other renewable fuels like hydrogen and electricity.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liquid fuel</span> Liquids that can be used to create energy

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catalytic reforming</span> Chemical process used in oil refining

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.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Petroleum coke</span> Solid carbon-rich material

Petroleum coke, abbreviated coke, pet 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 tar sands and from Venezuela's Orinoco oil sands. In petroleum coker units, residual oils from other distillation processes used in petroleum refining are treated at a high temperature and pressure leaving the petcoke after driving off gases and volatiles, and separating off remaining light and heavy oils. These processes are termed "coking processes", and most typically employ chemical engineering plant operations for the specific process of delayed coking.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hydrodesulfurization</span> Chemical process used to remove sulfur in natural gas and oil refining

Hydrodesulfurization (HDS), also called hydrotreatment or hydrotreating, 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vegetable oils as alternative energy</span> Fuel made from plants

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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.

Biogasoline is a type of gasoline produced from biomass such as algae. Like traditionally produced gasoline, it is made up of hydrocarbons with 6 (hexane) to 12 (dodecane) carbon atoms per molecule and can be used in internal combustion engines. However, unlike traditional gasoline/petroleum based fuels, which are mainly composed from oil, biogasolines are made from plants such as beets and sugarcane or cellulosic biomass- substances normally referred to as plant waste.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internal combustion engine</span> Engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber

An internal combustion engine is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal combustion engine, the expansion of the high-temperature and high-pressure gases produced by combustion applies direct force to some component of the engine. The force is typically applied to pistons, turbine blades, a rotor, or a nozzle. This force moves the component over a distance, transforming chemical energy into kinetic energy which is used to propel, move or power whatever the engine is attached to.

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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