This document discusses renewable energy sources and green diesel production. It provides information on various feedstocks used to produce biofuels like biodiesel and green diesel. Green diesel produced through hydrotreating has similar properties to petroleum-based diesel but with benefits like lower emissions. Several companies have built or plan to build commercial facilities overseas to produce green diesel at large scale using various fats and oils. However, no commercial hydrotreating units currently exist in Korea.

1. Amabilis Jelliarko Palgunadi
Std. id: 2007315247
Department of Chemistry, Kyung Hee University,
1 Hoegi-dong, Dongdaemun-gu, 130-70l Seoul, Republic
of Korea

2. Accelerated
consumption
of fossil fuels
Energy
Air quality
issues
CO2 reduction issues
(global warming
measures)

3. • Energy supply is becoming diversified due to structural changes in supply
and demand.
• Fossil fuels remain most important in near future (30-50 yrs).
• New energy sources not expected on global scale to provide major
contributions in a 30 y perspective.
Source: The Institute of Energy Economics, Japan

4. Burning fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum is the leading cause of increased
CO2 concentration in the atmosphere  greenhouse effect (because it absorbs
and emits infrared radiation thereby playing a role in the greenhouse effect) .
Source: http://cdiac.ornl.gov/

5. Developed country try to decreased the NOx concentration below 1 kilo ton.
Source: http://www.utoronto.ca/imap/collections/air_quality/global_na_emissions.htm

6. Renewable Energy Sources
Sun Wind Hydro Biofuel Hydrogen

7. Source: Hydrocarbon Engineering, June 2007
Biofuel is defined as solid, liquid or gaseous fuel obtained from relatively recently
lifeless or living biological material and is different from fossil fuels, which are derived
from long dead biological material. Also, various plants and plant-derived materials are
used for biofuel manufacturing.

8. • Diesel vehicle are naturally 20-40 % more energy efficient than gasoline vehicles
resulting in a 10-20 % reduction in greenhouse gas emission.
• Biodiesel and renewable diesel (green diesel) can reduce emission of hydrocarbons,
carbon monoxide and particulate matter.

9. Raw Materials Processing Product
Methanol
Fatty Acid Methyl
Transesterification
Ester (FAME)
Oils
Soy
Rapeseed Glycerol
Sunflower
Palm Oil Hydrogen
Jatropha
Waste Oils
etc Hydrotreated Biodiesel
Hydrotreating (Green Diesel)
H2O, CO2, CO, CH4, etc

10. FAME

11. Characteristics Concerns
Oxidation stability Gum formation
(stick/burnt at injection system)
High Solvency (solubility of water) Corrosion of metal parts
Oxygenate characteristics Effect on Emissions
(NOx/SOx/etc)
High viscosity Cold stability

12. Biodiesel produce adhesive deposit because of low oxidation stability

13. Green diesel
Source: Huber et al., App. Cat. A 329 (2007) 120-129

14. • High quality of diesel fuel is obtained (high-cetane, low gravity, low
aromatics and sulfur-free diesel fuel).
• It is possible to implement this technology in the existing refinery
infrastructure and fuels distribution system  lower implementation cost.
Schematic representation of oil refinery Simplified process flow diagram of
hydrotreating process

15. Parameters Petroleum Biodiesel Green diesel
Ultra-low sulfur diesel (FAME) (Hydrotreated biodiesel)
Oxygen content (%) 0 11 0
Specific gravity 0.84 0.88 0.78
Sulfur content, ppm <10 <1 <1
Heating value, 43 38 44
MJ/kg
Cloud point, oC -5 -5 to +15 -10 to +20
Distillation, oC 200 to 350 340 to 355 265 to 320
Cetane number 40 50 to 65 70 to 90
Stability Good Marginal Good
Source: Alternative Fuels Comparison Chart, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, US Department of Energy
Website: http://www.eere.energy.gov

16. Both the FAME and green diesel products
have significantly lower production of
climate-active CO2. However, green diesel
has lower climate active CO2 production
than FAME.
Source: Hydrocarbonprocessing, September 2007

17. Country Licencer Plan Location Raw Material Production
Capacity (kton/year)
UOP Livorno, Italy Vegetable oil 400 (@ 2010)
(A Honeywell Company)
Galp Energia, Portugal Vegetable oil 400 (@ 2010)
USA Cork, Ireland Vegetable oil 58 (@ 2008)
ConocoPhillips
Borger, Texas Animal fat 700 (@ 2009)
Syntroleum Louisiana Animal fat 300 (@ 2010)
Europe Neste Oil Porvoo, Finland Vegetable oil 340 (@ 2008)
Brazil Petrobas Brazil Vegetable oil 400 (@ 2008)
By 2012, the total production capacity in overseas : 2600 kton/year
So far there is no information about commercial unit for hydrotreating process in Korea

18. Source: D.C. Elliott, Energy & Fuels 21 (2007) 1792-1815