Hydrothermal liquefaction of Radiata Pine with Kraft black liquor for integrated biofuel production

This paper aims to evaluate the feasibility of hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of Radiata pine with black liquor from an existing Kraft pulp mill. The biomass into the HTL process was assumed at 2000 t/day and converted into bio-crude through the HTL process and upgraded to produce a gasoline and diesel blend. The HTL process was scaled-up based on an existing published patent. Mass and heat balance of the process was obtained through the process simulator, Aspen Plus. Process Integration was carried out to minimise the hot and cold utility of the process. The production rate of the process is 78.7 kt/y of fuel. The minimum fuel selling price (MFSP) was estimated at 0.95 USD/LGE (litre gasoline equivalent). A sensitivity analysis was carried out to determine the MFSP in 2017 and to study the changes of MFSP due to the uncertainty in the capital cost estimation.