Methanol to high-octane gasoline within a market-responsive biorefinery concept enabled by catalysis

Abstract

Biofuels production from lignocellulosic biomass is hindered by high conversion costs in the generation of high-quality fuels, driving research towards the development of new pathways with less severe conditions, higher yields and higher-quality products. Here, we present a market-responsive biorefinery concept based on methanol as the key intermediate, which generates high-octane gasoline (HOG) and jet fuel blendstocks from biomass. Process models and techno-economic analysis are linked with both fundamental and applied catalyst development research to quantify the impact of catalyst advancements on process economics. By facilitating reincorporation of C4 by-products during dimethyl ether homologation, a Cu-modified beta zeolite catalyst enabled a 38% increase in yield of the HOG product and a 35% reduction in conversion cost compared to the benchmark beta zeolite catalyst. Alternatively, C4 by-products were directed to a synthetic kerosene that met five specifications for a typical jet fuel, with a minor increase in the fuel synthesis cost versus the HOG-only case. The production of high-value fuels from bio-derived methanol requires improvement to become economically viable. Here, process advancements for the production of high-octane gasoline are reported, and the effects that these have on making the process competitive with market rates of fossil fuels are analysed.