VIABILIDAD MEDIOAMBIENTAL DEL CO‐PROCESAMIENTO DE ACEITES VEGETALES EN UNIDADES DE HIDROTRATAMIENTO PARA OBTENER BIOCARBURANTES MEDIANTE ACV

Abstract

Oil hydrotreating units in refineries are aimed at reducing the sulfur content of fuels to accomplish standard particular specifications. However, this process is currently one of the best available technologies to produce biofuels from vegetable oil in a refinery. This study highlights the theoretical life cycle assessment (LCA) of diesel and vegetal oil to obtain HDAV (Hidro Diesel Aceite Vegetal) biofuel by mixing. Results were compared with other biofuel production processes, such as those obtained by transesterification of vegetable oil (FAME, fatty acid methylester). It has also been included the production of conventional fossil diesel as a benchmark. Co-processing of vegetable oils with conventional fossil fuel is a novel way to incorporate biodiesel to accomplish European Directives 2009/28/EC and 2009/30/EC. Vegetable oils can be co-processed in these units if several adaptations are performed, so some properties could be improved in comparison with conventional fuel such as density and cetane number. Keywords: Hydrotreatment; LCA; Transesterification; refinery; HDAV; HVO