Using distillation to separate crude oil into petroleum products can be dated back to 1860 and remains the key operation in the oil refining process. With the diversity of sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs), the hydrocarbons produced through potentially sustainable pathways are broader than the acceptable distillation range for conventional jet fuels. All currently approved SAF routes are required to be blended with conventional fuel due to either material compatibility or fuel property constraints. In other words, the blended fuel needs satisfaction the specification limit per ASTM D1655. Distillation can be used to physically change the composition of SAF, which in turn alters the fuel properties towards the specification range. Two-dimensional gas chromatography offers hydrocarbon type analysis, which provides insight into SAF composition. With the recent advances in fuel property prediction from advanced detectors, fuel properties can be accurately predicted using just composition data alone, including but not limited to distillation curve properties. Thus, virtual distillation can be performed to determine what the fuel properties would look like after distillation. Subsequently, maximum blend limits with conventional fuel could be predicted using blending rules. Then, with the help of the numerical optimization solver coupled with virtual distillation, distillation could be optimized. Here, we developed a tool to generate the most optimal distillation solutions for any given full distillate SAF while removing the minimum amount of original carbon and achieving the maximum blend ratio with conventional fuels while keeping the blended fuel property within the specification limit. This tool could be used in the fuel R&D phase to facilitate better technology development or after fuel production to get the maximum desired blend ratio and yield. We validated this tool with actual distillation cut on the SAF samples, subsequently measured the fuel properties, and determined the maximum blend ratio and yield.

Distillation optimization for full distillate sustainable aviation fuel

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