Bleaching and Hydroprocessing of Algal Biomass-Derived Lipids to Produce Renewable Diesel Fuel

Algal lipids represent a promising feedstock for production of renewable diesel, but there is little information available regarding the integration of pretreatment, extraction, and catalytic upgrading steps. In this work, we examined oil bleaching by two methods and the effects of bleaching on oil deoxygenation over Pd/C and hydroisomerization over Pt/SAPO-11 catalysts. The raw oil was completely deoxygenated and 90% denitrogenated after dilution to 25 wt % in hexanes. The bleaching operations (using either a polar adsorbent or concentrated H₃PO₄) removed 85-90% of the nitrogen and led to 95-99% nitrogen removal after deoxygenation. Oil processability was also improved by bleaching. The bulk chemistry of the deoxygenation and isomerization was not strongly affected by bleaching, as post-isomerization products with cloud points less than -10°C and boiling ranges within or close to specification for No. 2 diesel fuel were obtained through 10 h time on stream with or without bleaching.