Biofacts: Fueling a stronger economy. Renewable fuel solutions for petroleum refineries

The DOE Biofuels Program is investigating processes to condition synthesis gas (syngas) produced from the gasification of biomass, coke, waste oils, and other inexpensive feedstocks and low-cost by-products. Syngas technologies offer refiners economical, flexible solutions to the challenges presented by today`s market forces and regulatory environment, such as: increasingly stringent environmental regulations that dictate the composition of petroleum products; increasingly sour crudes; increased coke production and hydrogen use resulting from heavier crude; increased disposal cost for coke and residuals oils; and decreasing hydrogen supply resulting from decreased catalytic reforming severity--a necessity to comply with requirements for reduced aromatic content. Most importantly, refiners can use the DOE syngas processes to upgrade refinery residuals and coke, which minimizes environmental problems and maximizes profitability. DOE`s solution also offers refiners the flexibility to economically supplement petroleum feedstocks with a wide variety of locally available renewable feedstocks that can be fed into the gasifier--feedstocks such as energy crops, municipal solid wastes, many industrial wastes, and agricultural by-products