Grant: Alliance Grants

Synthetic fuel is a collective term used for transport fuel that is produced from resources other than petroleum. One potential pathway for the production of synthetic jet fuel and diesel fuel is to make use of methanol as a starting material and is converted though the methanol-to-hydrocarbon synthesis process. When methanol-to-hydrocarbon synthesis is employed to produce fully formulated synthetic kerosene for jet fuel a disproportionately large amount of durene (1,2,4,5-tetramethylbenzene) is found in the product. Due to durene's high freezing point (around +80 C), it affects the formulation of jet fuel, as well as Canadian winter diesel fuel. The purpose of the project is twofold. Its first objective is to generate solubility data for engineering design that is also necessary to determine the blending threshold of durene in jet fuel and diesel fuel. Its second objective is to determine the performance of transalkylation to convert durene with lighter aromatics to meet fuel property requirements without an accompanying yield loss. Transalkylation is an industrially practiced process, but it has not been applied for durene conversion, which is why it is necessary to evaluate its performance for durene conversion. On successful completion the project will facilitate the design of a practical process that can produce fully formulated kerosene for jet fuel and Canadian winter diesel fuel from methanol.