Decarbonizing the aviation sector remains a critical need that will require low-carbon intensity, fungible, liquid hydrocarbon fuels, commonly referred to as sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). This talk will address technology development and scale-up efforts led by Alder Fuels for producing low-carbon SAF, with a focus on volatile fatty acids (VFA) derived from wet waste. Motivation for expanding SAF feedstocks beyond fats, oil, and grease to wet waste will be addressed, as well as the strategy to target biogenic intermediates that are compatible with existing refinery hydrotreating infrastructure. Technical findings will be presented on reaction engineering and catalyst process scale-up work conducted in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to enable VFA ketonization, a key step for producing intermediates that can be readily hydrotreated into SAF. The application of reaction chemistry modeling and jet fuel property blend prediction tools will be discussed for guiding process development, as well as approaches to meet ASTM specifications while increasing the renewable blend content of SAF towards 100%.

Technology development and scale-up for producing sustainable aviation fuel from wet waste volatile fatty acids

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.