Catalytic Conversion of Renewable Methanol to Sustainable Aviation Fuel.
The aviation industry faces significant challenges in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, with few alternatives to liquid fuels for long-haul flights, where Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), offer a promising solution. This paper focus on SAF production from wet methanol and ethanol in the Alcohol-to-Jet (ATJ) process, to produce hydrocarbons. The paper includes, lumped kinetic parameter modelling of the dehydration, oligomerization and hydrogenation process utilizing empirical kinetics, vailed from experimental tests. The experimental validation is conducted with a packed bed reactor, with an impregnated ZSM-5 catalyst. Furthermore, the paper aims to determine the deactivation of different catalysts, caused by coke formation, when utilizing wet methanol as a feed. Based on the results from the lumped kinetic parameter model, it was found that utilizing a X-ZSM-5 catalyst along with a Weight hourly space velocity of XX h-1 and a flow rate of XX ml/h, that the composition of hydrocarbons formed consisted of: XX% paraffines, XX% Olefins, XX% aromatics, XX% aliphatics, and XX% Gasoline. Furthermore, it was also found from experimental testing that deactivation of the catalyst had a significant impact on the yield and conversion after XX h. Comparison of the experimental results to the modeled results showed a deviation of XX%.