Overall Energy Conversion Efficiency of a Thermocatalytic Multi-Step Process to Convert Triglycerides into Fungible Transportation Fuels

Abstract

A new fuel process to convert fats and oils to hydrocarbon fuels has been under development since 2006 at North Carolina State University. The process consists of three main reactions steps, with the provision for optional burning of glycerol produced in step one to provide heat inputs for all three steps. This work describes a study involving modeling, analysis, and design optimization to predict the energy conversion efficiency of the overall process. The study predicts an overall efficiency of 89.6%.