Renewable engine fuel and method of producing same

Abstract

The present invention provides non-petroleum high-octane fuel derived from biomass sources, and a method of producing same. The method of production involves reducing the biomass feedstocks to sugars, fermenting the sugars using microorganisms or mutagens thereof to produce ethanol or acetic acid, converting the acetic acid or ethanol to acetone, and converting the acetone to mesitylene and isopentane, the major components of the renewable engine fuel. Trimerization of acetone can be carried out in the presence of a catalyst containing at least one metal selected from the group consisting of niobium, iron and manganese. The ethanol can be converted to mesitylene in a dehydration reaction in the presence of a catalyst of zinc oxide / calcium oxide, and unreacted ethanol and water separated from mesitylene by distillation. These ethanol-based, biomass-derived fuels are fully renewable, may be formulated to have a wide range of octane values and energy, and may effectively be used to replace 100 LL aviation fuel (known as AvGas), as well as high-octane, rocket, diesel, turbine engine fuels, as well as two-cycle, spark-ignited engine fuels.

Description

REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This is a continuation-in-part of International Application No. PCT / US 2009 / 047344, filed Jun. 15, 2009, which is an International Application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12 / 139,428, filed Jun. 13, 2008, now pending, itself a continuation-in-part of 11 / 881,565, filed Jul. 7, 2007, now pending, the contents of all of which are incorporated herein by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates in general to an engine fuel produced from renewable materials and, in particular, a non-petroleum fuel produced from renewable biomass materials. Several methods of producing same utilizing various biomass feedstocks is provided, in which bioderived feedstocks are reduced to sugars, the sugars are converted to ethanol or acetic acid, the acetic acid or ethanol is converted to acetone, and the acetone converted to mesitylene and other hydrocarbons such as isopentane, the major components of the renewable engine fuel. Further,...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0037]In a sixth preferred embodiment, there is provided in the first preferred embodiment a method of producing bio-mass derived high-octane fuel, wherein metabolites of acetone, butanol and ethanol from step (a) are stripped from the mixture produced in the fermentation process in step (a) when concentrations thereof over 2 to 3 wt % are obtained, whereby to avoid any poisoning of the microorganism.

Problems solved by technology

With the end of cheap oil and the mounting peak of world oil production, it is recognized that petroleum is a non-renewable resource, and will eventually be depleted.

However, since ethanol-based fuels have lower energy, pollution is generally effectively increased per mile.

It is a kinetic parameter, therefore difficult to predict.

This translates to aircraft range and to specific fuel consumption.

Aircraft cannot compromise range due to the sensitivity of their missions.

Although a number of chemical compounds have been found to satisfy the motor octane number for 100 LL octane aviation fuel, they fail to meet a number of other technical requirements for aviation fuel.

Although the prior art describes various methods in which acetone can be trimerized to form mesitylene in acid media, as well as various gas phase reactions in which acetone is trimerized in acidic heterogeneous catalytic surfaces such as silica gel, there still exists the problem of controlling the (1) extent of reaction (dimerization as opposed to trimerization) as well as (2) the selectivity of the reaction (minimization of unreacted side products) while maintaining (3) high throughput.

However, there are no known prior art processes capable of producing an engine fuel directly from biomass feedstock that satisfies FAA requirements.

Furthermore, there are no known prior an processes involving the use of bacterial-based fermentation of a biomass to produce acetone, and then using gas phase reactions at elevated temperatures to form mesitylene and isopentane from the acetone.