Technoeconomic and life-cycle analyses are presented for catalytic conversion of ethanol to fungible hydrocarbon fuel blendstocks, informed by advances in catalyst and process development. Whereas prior work toward this end focused on 3-step processes featuring dehydration, oligomerization, and hydrogenation, the consolidated alcohol dehydration and oligomerization (CADO) approach described here results in 1-step conversion of wet ethanol vapor (40 wt% in water) to hydrocarbons and water over a metal-modified zeolite catalyst. A development project increased liquid hydrocarbon yields from 36% of theoretical to >80%, reduced catalyst cost by an order of magnitude, scaled up the process by 300-fold, and reduced projected costs of ethanol conversion 12-fold. Current CADO products conform most closely to gasoline blendstocks, but can be blended with jet fuel at low levels today, and could potentially be blended at higher levels in the future. Operating plus annualized capital costs for conversion of wet ethanol to fungible blendstocks are estimated at $2.00/GJ for CADO today and $1.44/GJ in the future, similar to the unit energy cost of producing anhydrous ethanol from wet ethanol ($1.46/GJ). Including the cost of ethanol from either corn or future cellulosic biomass but not production incentives, projected minimum selling prices for fungible blendstocks produced via CADO are competitive with conventional jet fuel when oil is $100 per barrel but not at $60 per barrel. However, with existing production incentives, the projected minimum blendstock selling price is competitive with oil at $60 per barrel. Life-cycle greenhouse gas emission reductions for CADO-derived hydrocarbon blendstocks closely follow those for the ethanol feedstock.

本文介绍了将催化剂催化转化为可替代的烃类燃料调和原料的技术经济性和生命周期分析，这得益于催化剂和工艺开发的进步。尽管为此目的而进行的先前工作集中在以脱水，低聚和氢化为特征的三步法，但此处所述的合并的醇脱水和低聚（CADO）方法导致湿乙醇蒸气（在水中40 wt％）的第一步转化为金属改性沸石催化剂上的碳氢化合物和水。一个开发项目将液态烃的收率从理论值的36％提高到了80％以上，催化剂成本降低了一个数量级，工艺规模扩大了300倍，乙醇转化成本预计降低了12倍。当前的CADO产品最符合汽油调合原料，但今天可以与航空燃油低含量混合，将来有可能与更高水平混合。如今，加多将加湿乙醇转化为可替代混合原料的运营成本和年化资本成本估计为2.00美元/ GJ，未来估计为1.44美元/ GJ，这与从湿乙醇生产无水乙醇的单位能源成本（1.46美元/ GJ）相似。包括玉米或未来纤维素生物质中的乙醇成本，但不包括生产激励因素，通过CADO生产的可替代混合原料的最低最低销售价格与常规航空燃料相比具有竞争性，而石油价格为每桶100美元，而不是每桶60美元。但是，在现有的生产激励措施下，预计的最低混合油销售价格与每桶60美元的石油相比具有竞争力。