Abstract
This work proposes a conceptual process design of a production plant for hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO). Palm oil is selected to be the most promising feedstock in terms of costs and chemical composition. Since UNIFAC is unable to correctly estimate the behavior of the liquid phase, an implementation of COSMO-RS is used as a more appropriate tool for the parameter estimation. As pre-treatment inorganic impurities in palm oil are removed with citric acid. A sulfur-free-Ni-catalyst embedded into a trickle bed reactor is applied for the conversion of palm oil to paraffinic fuel. Unit production costs of HVO of 0.85USD/kg (U.S.) and 0.91USD/kg (EU-27) are determined by using current palm oil prices. Those results are found to be marginally higher than costs for biodiesel production from palm oil. The blending capabilities of HVO with various diesel surrogates are calculated considering the DIN EN 590 standard.