Renewable Fuels
Methaforming and Aroforming are energy transition technologies: they enable production of partially or entirely renewable gasoline from fossil or renewable naphthas and fossil or renewable alcohols and/or olefins. Methaforming and Aroforming enable other renewable energy technologies by upgrading low value byproducts into drop-in gasoline or BTX.
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Methaforming: an Economic Path to Renewable Drop-in Fuels
Liquid fuels will remain the main source of energy for transportation in the next few decades :
Liquid fuels are available everywhere. Only a road passable by truck is needed to bring them to a customer.
There are 100 times more cars in operation with the internal combustion engines than with electric motors.
But these advantages do not mean that the liquid fuels have to be entirely or even mostly fossil. On the contrary, due to universal demand and a well-functioning global distribution system for liquid fuels, their renewable (non-fossil) variety can play a key role in a transition to sustainable energy. Renewable drop-in fuels like jet, gasoline, diesel and LPG open up avenues for cost-effective and sustainable decarbonization of transport.
The emergence and adoption of technologies to make the renewable fuels has been uneven. Renewable diesel has been a commercial reality for a few years already, but even a partially renewable gasoline or LPG have been largely missing from the picture - until Methaforming. It can make partially or fully renewable jet fuel, aviation or motor gasoline and LPG that meet standards for such fuels (“drop-in fuels”), at a profit to the operator. As an added benefit, the operator has flexibility to choose and change how much of fossil vs. renewable feeds to use, from 100% fossil to 100% renewable, depending on their local situation.
With Methaforming, availability of renewable liquid fuels and thus, a truly sustainable decarbonization does not need to be limited to the rich countries and regions. Methaforming’s ability to process the feeds that have few alternative uses, and to operate profitably at small scale opens up the opportunities to supply both established and emerging markets with sustainable liquid fuels at attractive prices. This helps to eliminate the “sustainable vs. affordable” trade-off.
Methaforming is a major step to renewable liquid fuels:
Methaforming can produce gasoline and LPG from renewable feeds
All or some of the feeds of a Methaformer can be renewable, and the shares of the feeds can be changed in response to the local conditions. This allows the operator to choose the percentage of renewable hydrocarbon molecules in the products from zero to 100%. Some of the renewable feeds can include for example ethanol and/or naphtha from Fisher-Tropsch (gas-to-liquid, GTL) process that converts a renewable gas (e.g. biogas) into liquid hydrocarbons.
The operator has additional flexibility because Methaforming feeds may vary in quality and cost to procure. They may be waste streams or byproducts from making something else. For example, renewable naphtha is a typical a byproduct of producing renewable jet or diesel fuel. Molecular composition of such naphtha usually makes it unsuitable for catalytic reforming or isomerization, and consequently, the naphtha is often sent to a cracker as low value feed. Methaforming that converts up to 3/4 of normal paraffins to isoparaffins and aromatics, can upgrade this renewable naphtha into drop-in renewable gasoline, jet fuel, LPG. A mixture of light alcohols and ethers that is a byproduct of butanol production is another example of an excellent Methaforming feed.
Depending on the carbon index and the combination of the feeds, this ability of Methaforming to use renewable feeds reduces the carbon footprint of the produced gasoline (or BTX) and LPG. In case of ethanol as a co-feed, the carbon footprint can be reduced by 200-400 kg of CO2 per ton of product.
Read more about acceptable Methaforming feeds here. The process and its equipment need no modification to operate on renewable feeds; you can read more about those in the Technology section.
The chemistry of Methaforming uses energy efficiently
Unlike conventional ways of producing jet, gasoline and LPG, Methaforming technology combines chemical reactions that produce heat (exothermic) with those that consume heat (endothermic) in the same reactor. This reduces the need to heat the reactor from outside which saves fuel, money and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Under typical conditions, this effect reduces the carbon footprint of the produced gasoline (or BTX) and LPG by over 100 kg of CO2 per ton of product in addition to what is contributed by the choice of feeds.
Key chemical reactions that make up the Methaforming process are shown here.
Methaforming enables other renewable energy technologies
Most renewable fuel-production technologies have low value byproducts that impair the economics of the process and hinder adoption of the technology. Methaforming can act as an enabler, a provider of “last mile” conversion for these technologies due to its ability to convert hard-to-process naphtha feeds into valuable gasoline or BTX concentrate and LPG.