Development of analytical methods for validating a diesel purification process

Due to the environmental issues related to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the Quebec government has invested in a series of initiatives covering the sectors associated with the highest GHG emissions. In the province, the transportation industry is responsible for 43.5%, which emphasizes the need to produce fossil fuels substitutes. Ethanol is nowadays the most used biofuel allowing displacing part of the fossil fuels used in the transportation sector. However, industries such as heavy transportation, aviation and maritime currently use alkanes that can hardly be economically produced from lignocellulosic biomass (except biodiesel).
This project intends to support the initiative of the company CelluFuel, aiming at the valorization of forest residues into diesel-grade alkanes. The latter could then be used, for example, as fuel for the heavy transportation industry. The CelluFuel process is based on the catalytic liquefaction of lignocellulosic residues, which produces a mixture of alkanes that is slightly shy in meeting the standards of fuel-grade diesel. The overall objective of the project is hence the development of a new low-cost purification method allowing the alkane mixture to reach the standard specifications. More specifically, this work will focus on the development of the analytical methods for the characterization of the solid, liquid and gas products related to the purification process that will allow validating the different stages of this process during its development at laboratory scale until its validation at pilot scale. The project should provide all necessary tools allowing the partner to implement this process on an industrial scale.