Process for producing biofuel and biofuel components

A process for producing biofuel or biofuel components, comprising:

• a first step of feeding of biological material comprising tall oil, crude tall oil, tall oil fatty acids, tall oil derivative(s) or mixtures thereof into a reactor system, which comprises a) a catalytically active guard bed phase and b) a catalytically active main reaction phase and wherein the catalytically active guard bed phase comprises at least one catalyst bed comprising catalytically active material for removing of metals, sulphur and phosphorus, and said catalytically active material is selected from the group consisting of Ni, Co, Mo, W, zeolites, Al2O3, SiO2 and mixtures thereof;
• and
• the catalytically active main reaction phase comprises at least one catalyst bed comprising a combination of hydrodeoxygenating (HDO) and hydrodewaxing (HDW) catalysts, wherein the proportion of HDW catalyst content, based on total content of HDW and HDO catalysts, grows towards the outlet end of the reactor system, the HDO catalyst is selected from the group consisting of NiMo, CoMo and a mixture of Ni, Mo and Co, and the HDW catalyst is a NiW catalyst, and wherein the catalytic activity of the guard bed catalysts is lower than that of the main phase catalysts;
• a second step of treating the feed material catalytically with hydrogen in the reactor system to cause hydrodeoxygenation, isomerization and cracking of feed material components to provide a hydroprocessing product, and
• a third step of recovering at least a fraction of the hydroprocessing product as biofuel or biofuel components.