A hydrotreating and isomerization pre-treatment process in a biofuel production plant, which is characterized in that it occurs from a raw supply consisting of an organic feed comprising secondary materials such as frying oils, category 1 animal fats, residual oils or by-products consisting of monoglycerides, diglycerides, triglycerides and free fatty acids, which is added to a recycling stream consisting of a mixture of mono-, di- and triglycerides free of impurities and exiting an esterification unit, said process occurring by means of hydrolysis with excess water, under controlled pressure and temperature conditions, thus obtaining the partial or total conversion of the supply into glycerol and fatty acids, the excess water introduced into the hydrolysis process acting as a solvent for impurities of various nature present in ionic form, thus removing most of the heavy metals, as well as of the chlorides present in said supply.

Systems and methods to provide renewable transportation fuels for internal combustion engines by converting renewable feedstocks into two or more intermediate hydrocarbon blend stocks and blending at least two of the two or more intermediate hydrocarbon blend stocks to produce the renewable transportation fuel. Methods and/or processes may include selecting sugar from a sugar source and introducing the sugar into one or more reactors. The sugar may be converted into an intermediate renewable hydrocarbon blend stock and sent to a separation unit to separate out an intermediate renewable gasoline unit. The process may include selecting and converting a lipid from a lipid source into a renewable diesel product. The renewable diesel product may be sent to a second separation unit to separate out renewable diesel and a low-grade naphtha. The low-grade naphtha and intermediate renewable gasoline may be blended to define a finished renewable gasoline.

Systems and methods to reduce pour point (PP) temperatures of fat-based compositions for use in transportation fuels. In one or more embodiments, methods and systems reduce the pour point of rendered fats using biologically-derived plant oils for effectively transporting the blended fat based compositions over long distances, thereby advantageously decreasing the heating and mixing requirements needed to maintain the compositional temperature above the pour point. In certain embodiments, the fat based composition comprises rendered animal fats, such as tallow in combination with distilled corn oil (DCO).

The present invention provides a method for producing a biofuel that allows an animal/vegetable fat/oil raw material containing a free fatty acid to react with a lower alcohol in the presence of a solid acid catalyst, in which the consumption of the lower alcohol is reduced and the free fatty acid and the lower alcohol are selectively esterified to reform the animal/vegetable fat/oil.

In this method, as a solid acid catalyst is used a catalyst selected from an SiO.sub.2/Al.sub.2O.sub.3 solid acid catalyst, an SiO.sub.2/Al.sub.2O.sub.3 solid acid catalyst with aluminum being partially introduced into mesoporous silica, an Al.sub.2O.sub.3/B.sub.2O.sub.3 solid acid catalyst, and a sulfated zirconia solid acid catalyst, with a molar ratio of the free fatty acid and the lower alcohol of 1 to 6.

The disclosed invention is a process for liquefaction of hydrolysis residue of lignocellulosic biomass, original lignocellulosic biomass or municipal solid waste in alcohol-water media at alkaline conditions, for the production of low-M.sub.w bio-oils. The disclosed process is characterized in that it works for the direct liquefaction of the biomass, and operates under mild conditions (<300 C. and <10 MPa) employing alkali compounds as catalysts (NaOH, KOH, CaO, Na.sub.2CO.sub.3, K.sub.2CO.sub.3, Ca(OH).sub.2 or Ba(OH).sub.2). The process is further characterized in that it employs mixed solvents (glycerol-water, ethylene-glycol, water, glycerol-alcohol-water or ethylene-glycol-alcohol water), where all solvents are recyclable and reusable. The low-Mw bio-oils from hydrolysis residue of lignocellulosic biomass, original lignocellulosic biomass or municipal solid waste can be utilized as a liquid bio-fuel or bio-based chemicals for the production of various bio-based materials.

An improved alkaline pretreatment of biomass is provided that is a single-stage, two oxidant alkaline oxidative pretreatment process. The process uses a homogenous catalyst with at least two oxidants (Hydrogen peroxide and enhanced levels of oxygen) in an alkaline environment to catalytically pretreat lignocellulosic biomass in a single-stage oxidation reaction. The provided single-stage alkaline-oxidative pretreatment improves biomass pretreatment and increase enzymatic digestibility to improve the economic feasibility of production of lignocellulose derived sugars.

The present invention relates, inter alia, to vegetative plant parts, such as from a Sorghum sp. and/or a Zea mays plant, which comprise a total fatty acid (TFA) content which comprises fatty acids esterified in the form of triacylglycerols (TAG) and fatty acids in the form of lipids other than TAG, wherein the vegetative plant parts comprise greatly increased levels of TFA, for example a TFA content of about 5% (w/w dry weight). The present invention also relates to the use of the vegetative plant parts as a feedstuff, and/or to produce a feedstuff, for animal consumption.

Disclosed is a hydrocarbon composition containing isomerised paraffins having specific cut-off points in a distillation curve, a density from 768.0 to 772.0 and an average carbon number of 14.3 to 15.1. The hydrocarbon composition can be used as a fuel or fuel component, especially a jet fuel. Disclosed is also a method to produce a hydrocarbon composition. The isomerised paraffins in the hydrocarbon composition can be from a renewable source.

The process produces a diesel from a biorenewable feedstock by hydrotreating to remove heteroatoms and saturate olefins. The biorenewable feedstock is contacted in a guard bed reactor in the presence of hydrogen to saturate olefins and remove metals to produce a contacted feed stream. The contacted feed stream is then heated in a charge heater to a higher temperature than in the guard bed reactor and hydrotreated in the presence of a hydrotreating hydrogen stream and a hydrotreating catalyst to deoxygenate the contacted feed stream to provide a hydrotreated stream.

A process for obtaining an oil derivative. The process comprises the following steps: providing a thermochemical oil comprising a compound having a hydroxyl group, wherein the thermochemical oil is crude or refined oil resulting from thermochemical conversion of organic material; additionally providing a compound having an acyl group by feeding the compound having an acyl group, or a carboxylic acid or an ester as starting material for conversion to the compound having an acyl group, to the thermochemical oil; and reacting the compound having a hydroxyl group with the compound having an acyl group, thereby forming an ester between said compounds. A process for obtaining an intermediate composition, the process comprising blending the oil derivative with a refinery feedstock. An oil derivative or an intermediate composition. A process for obtaining a fuel component, the process comprising hydrotreating or hydrocracking the oil derivative or intermediate composition. A process for obtaining a fuel composition, the process comprising blending the fuel component with another component of a refinery fuel component pool. A fuel component or a fuel composition.