Techno-economic Analysis of Jet Fuel Production from Vegetable Oil Using Self-produced Solvent and Non-noble Metallic Catalyst

Biojet fuel has been successfully utilized in commercial flights. However, the widespread adoption of biojet fuel still presents certain challenges, one of the most significant of which is the high cost of the production process. This is primarily reflected in the fact that the production of commercial biojet fuel necessitates the operation of a high-temperature environment and multiple reaction units, which increases operational costs. Consequently, the development of an efficient and cost-effective process paves the way for the industrialization of biofuels. A novel biphasic catalytic process has been developed that can scale down the multiple unit operations of the process line and perform process simulation in Aspen Plus. In addition, inexpensive nickel-based catalyst is proposed as the catalyst instead of precious metal catalysts. The process utilizes the intermediate product, n-heptadecane, and water as a novel mixed solvent to achieve a new biphasic catalytic process for the one-pot production of biojet fuels under mild conditions. A comparison of two similar innovative options was carried out through a series of analyses of raw material costs, capital costs, operating costs, product selling prices, and net present value. These analyses demonstrated that Scenario 2 with a nickel-based catalyst and self-produced solvent was more economical. The selling price of jet paraffin was calculated to be lower than 2300 $/tonne based on market data, with a payback period of 1~2 years. Reducing feedstock costs represents a viable strategy for improving the economics of biojet fuels.