MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil Catalysts and Licensing LLC has introduced ExxonMobil Renewable Diesel process technology (EMRD) to help meet the evolving needs for mobility, while utilizing renewable feedstock, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.
This new process technology converts feedstocks including, but not limited to, vegetable oils, unconverted cooking oil and animal fats, into renewable diesel.
The EMRD process is a two-stage process in which hydrotreating and dewaxing are controlled separately. Compared to a single-stage process, this approach provides higher diesel yields and superior control. Additionally, the EMRD process provides the potential to produce jet fuel as a secondary product with added fractionation.
The EMRD process is an integrated solution that leverages ExxonMobil’s BioIsomerization Dewaxing (BIDW) catalyst. This provides refiners and biofuel producers with powerful dewaxing in both winter and summer modes. Improved yields were demonstrated during testing of BIDW catalyst versus other internally formulated zeolite-based alternatives.
“Choosing the right process technology is critical to producing both renewable diesel and jet fuel from bio-feedstocks. The EMRD process provides an advanced solution that enables high yields while meeting stringent seasonal product specifications,” said James Ritchie, president of ExxonMobil Catalysts and Licensing LLC.
As MRC wrote before, ExxonMobil announced its majority-owned affiliate, Imperial Oil Ltd., is moving forward with plans to produce renewable diesel at a new complex at its Strathcona refinery in Edmonton, Canada. When construction is complete, the refinery is expected to produce approximately 20,000 barrels per day of renewable diesel, which could reduce emissions in the Canadian transportation sector by about 3 million metric tons per year. The complex will utilize locally grown plant-based feedstock and hydrogen with carbon capture and storage (CCS) as part of the manufacturing process.
We remind that ExxonMobil and SABIC have announced that their joint venture, Gulf Coast Growth Ventures located near Corpus Christi, Texas, has reached mechanical completion of a monoethylene glycol (MEG) unit and two polyethylene (PE) units. Project startup is expected to begin ahead of schedule, likely in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.
ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
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