Biomass-derived oils catalytic cracking in existing refinery processes

The partial replacement of crude oil by renewable sources to produce high quality transportation fuels is a timely and interesting topic. It helps to reduce the dependence from petroleum, as well as the carbon dioxide emissions responsible for the greenhouse effect. In this context, an interesting option could be to process lignocellulosic biomass-derived oils (bio-oils) in the existing refinery units, benefiting from minimum investment costs, well-established technologies, while simultaneously increasing the sustainable image of the petroleum industry and promoting a gradual energy transition scheme.

The Fluid Catalytic Cracking process (FCC) is one of the major refinery units, and a very versatile process able to adjust to a wide range of feedstocks. Therefore, FCC is a promising candidate to receive and process these new feedstocks, the bio-oils. However, with the introduction of the bio-oils in the FCC units, the composition of the feedstocks is going to change. A key aspect is that, contrary to petroleum-based feedstocks, bio-oils contain significant amounts of oxygenated molecules (16-50 wt.%), which could potentially introduce changes to the chemistry of the process, catalyst performance, quality of the products and to the deactivation-regeneration balance of the unit.

In this project, the feasibility of the use of bio-oils in the FCC process to produce bio-fuels will be investigated, either in 100% addition or blended with the traditional petroleum feedstocks. Moreover, new improved catalysts, dedicated to the bio-oils processing or co-processing, will be developed, and evaluated.

Therefore, this will be an experimental-based project, involving the development and characterisation of catalysts, and their catalytic test under reaction conditions.

Candidates should have (or expect to achieve) a UK honours degree at 2.1 or above (or equivalent) in Chemical Engineering or any related discipline, such as BSc in Chemistry, Materials Science.

Essential background:
Chemical Engineering, Reaction Engineering, Renewable Energy Engineering, Chemistry, Materials Science.

Knowledge of:
Materials synthesis, materials characterisation, namely N2 sorption to determine textural characterisation, TGA, FTIR, XRD, etc., product analysis and quantification (e.g. gas chromatography), reactor design and kinetics, heterogeneous catalysis.
Microsoft Office package (especially Excel, Word, PowerPoint).

APPLICATION PROCEDURE:

• Apply for Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering
• State name of the lead supervisor as the Name of Proposed Supervisor
• State ‘Self-funded’ as Intended Source of Funding
• State the exact project title on the application form

When applying please ensure all required documents are attached:

• All degree certificates and transcripts (Undergraduate AND Postgraduate MSc-officially translated into English where necessary)
• Detailed CV

Informal inquiries can be made to Dr I Graca ([Email Address Removed]), with a copy of your curriculum vitae and cover letter. All general enquiries should be directed to the Postgraduate Research School ([Email Address Removed])

The other supervisor on the project is Prof M Filipa Riberiro, Universidade de Lisboa