BTL to ORD: Aviation-Grade Kerosene from Municipal Waste Syngas

While many energy demands within modern life are transitioning towards renewable, electrical sources such as rechargeable batteries for automobiles, one energy-demanding sector within society which still requires chemically stored energy is aviation. At the same time, disposal of society’s waste is a growing concern that threatens both ecological health and the cost of sustaining our modern population distributions as waste must be moved further and further from municipalities. To tackle both of these modern problems with a single process train, a collaboration with BTL to ORD Municipal Waste to Syngas group was established to produce aviation fuel from municipal waste similar to the FulcrumTM Bioenergy facility in construction in Gary, Indiana. The design of a biomass-to-liquids (BTL) facility in the Chicagoland area was selected to help reduce the volume of municipal waste sent to local landfills while supplying needed jet fuel for nearby airports such as O’Hare International (ORD). For our production unit, syngas purchased from Municipal Waste to Syngas group is used to synthesize long-chain hydrocarbons via the Fischer-Tropsch process which are subsequently finished and separated to form synthetic paraffinic kerosene suitable as Jet A aviation fuel. By focusing on kerosene production, efficiencies in processing such as wax recycle and power island integration yielded a process unit capable of supplying most of the required operational utilities with surplus electricity. The annual production rate of aviation-grade kerosene is 40.9MM barrels. This design demonstrates the feasibility of a municipal waste to jet fuel facility which can both mitigate the impact of landfill disposal and provide clean, renewable fuels for aircraft.