Solvent consumption in supercritical ethanol, propanol or butanol treatment of either refined pre-extracted lignin or comparatively impure lignin-rich solid residual from hydrothermally pretreated lignocellulosic biomass can be minimized by conducting the reaction at very high loading of lignin to solvent. Comparatively impure, crude lignin-rich solid residual can be directly converted by supercritical alcohol treatment to significantly diesel-soluble lignin oil without requirement for pre-extraction or pre-solubilization of lignin or for added reaction promoters such as catalysts, hydrogen donor co-solvents, acids, based or H2 gas. O:C ratio of product oil can readily be obtained using crude lignin residual in such a process at levels 0.20 or lower.

The present invention discloses a method for direct liquefaction of biomass. The method comprises the following steps: (1) mixing a biomass, a hydrogenation catalyst and a hydrogen-donor solvent to prepare a biomass slurry; (2) carrying out a first liquefaction reaction with the biomass slurry and hydrogen gas to obtain a first reaction product; (3) carrying out a second liquefaction reaction with the first reaction product and hydrogen gas to obtain a second reaction product; (4) subjecting the second reaction product to a first gas-liquid separation at a temperature of 290-460 DEG C. to produce a first liquid phase and a first gas phase; (5) subjecting the first gas phase to a second gas-liquid separation at a temperature of 30-60 DEG C. to obtain a second liquid phase, and mixing the first liquid phase with the second liquid phase to obtain a liquid phase mixture; (6) carrying out a first distillation on the liquid phase mixture to obtain a light fraction and a heavy fraction; and (7) carrying out a second distillation on the heavy fraction to separate out a distillate oil and a residue, wherein the light fraction and the distillate oil are final liquid of the liquefaction. By utilizing the method for direct liquefaction of biomass, the obtained final liquid has a high yield and a low solid content of residue.

The subject process enhances catalytic activity for demetallization and desulfurization of a residue feed stream by injecting water into the feed and hydrotreating in two stages with interstage separation. Water injection improves the demetallation activity of the HDM catalyst and separating vapor comprising hydrogen sulfide from the demetallized effluent improves the activity of the HDS catalyst. We have discovered that the water injection and hydrogen sulfide removal together provide a profound synergetic effect.

For the shipping industry, these fuels provide solutions to long outstanding technical problems that heretofore hindered supply of low sulfur marine fuels in quantities needed to meet worldwide sulfur reduction goals. Marine shipping use of high sulfur bunker oils is reported as largest source of world-wide transportation SOx emissions. When ships on the open seas burn cheap low grade heavy bunker oils high in sulfur, nitrogen and metals, the SOx, NOx, and metal oxides go to the environment. This invention converts essentially all of each barrel of crude feed to a single ultraclean fuel versus conventional refining where crude feed is cut into many pieces, and each piece is sent down a separate market path meeting various different product specifications. When in port, ships can use these fuels to generate and sell electricity to land based electrical grids to offset fuel cost in an environment-friendly manner.

A process is disclosed for reducing loss of hydrogen in solution to the fractionation section of a hydroprocessing unit. The hot liquid stream is stripped with an inert gas in a hot flash stripper to urge hydrogen into the hot flash vapor stream. Substantial conservation of hydrogen gas is achieved.

A process for continuously upgrading heavy oil to produce light hydrocarbon gases which are recycled in the process as a carrier gas used in spark-discharge hydrocarbon cracking within the process. The process also produces light hydrocarbon liquids which are used to upgrade the heavy oil. An apparatus for continuously upgrading heavy oil to produce light hydrocarbon gases which are recycled in the as a carrier gas used in spark-discharge hydrocarbon cracking within the apparatus. The apparatus also produces light hydrocarbon liquids which are used to upgrade the heavy oil.

A bio-renewable conversion process for making fuel from bio-renewable feedstocks is combined with a hydrogen production process that includes recovery of CO.sub.2. The integrated process uses a purge gas stream comprising hydrogen from the bio-renewable hydrocarbon production process in the hydrogen production process.

Systems, apparatuses and methods of utilizing a Fischer-Tropsch (FT) tail gas purge stream for recycling are disclosed. One or more methods include removing an FT tail gas purge stream from an FT tail gas produced by an FT reactor, treating the FT tail gas purge stream with steam in a water gas shift (WGS) reactor, having a WGS catalyst, to produce a shifted FT purge stream including carbon dioxide and hydrogen, and removing at least a portion of the carbon dioxide from the shifted FT purge stream, producing a carbon dioxide stream and a treated purge stream. Other embodiments are also disclosed.

The present invention discloses a method for producing light oil through liquefying biomass. The method comprises the following steps: (1) mixing a biomass, a hydrogenation catalyst and a solvent oil to prepare a biomass slurry; (2) carrying out a first liquefaction reaction with the biomass slurry and hydrogen gas to obtain a first reaction product; (3) carrying out a second liquefaction reaction with the first reaction product and hydrogen gas to obtain a second reaction product; (4) subjecting the second reaction product to a first separation operation to produce a light component and a heavy component; (5) carrying out vacuum distillation on the heavy component to obtain a light fraction; (6) mixing the light component with the light fraction to form a mixture, carrying out a hydrogenation reaction on the mixture to obtain a hydrogenation product; and (7) subjecting the hydrogenation product to fractionation operation to obtain a light oil. The two steps of liquefaction on the biomass, followed by separation, vacuum distillation and hydrogenation reaction enable the yield of the light oil to be increased.

A process for the hydrotreatment of a feed obtained from renewable sources in which the total stream of feed F is divided into a number of different part-streams of feed F1 to Fn equal to the number of catalytic zones n, where n is 1 to 10. The mass flow rate of hydrogen sent to the first catalytic zone represents more than 80% by weight of the total mass flow rate of hydrogen used. The effluent from the reactor outlet undergoes at least one separation step. A portion of the liquid fraction is recycled to the catalytic zones in a manner such that the local recycle ratio for each of the beds is 2 or less, and the local dilution ratio over each of the beds is less than 4.