Conversion of biomass or residual waste material to biofuels

A process for producing liquid hydrocarbon products from solid biomass and optionally residual waste feedstocks, said process comprising the steps of:

• a) hydropyrolysing the solid feedstock in a hydropyrolysis reactor vessel in the presence of molecular hydrogen and one or more deoxygenation catalysts to produce a product stream comprising partially deoxygenated hydropyrolysis product, H2O, H2, CO2, CO, C1-C3 gases, char and catalyst fines, wherein the solid feedstock is a lignocellulose-containing biomass;
• b) removing said char and catalyst fines from said product stream;
• c) hydroconverting said partially deoxygenated hydropyrolysis product in a hydroconversion reactor vessel in the presence of one or more hydroconversion catalysts and of the H2O, CO2, CO, H2, and C1-C3 gases generated in step a) to produce a vapour phase product comprising substantially fully deoxygenated hydrocarbon product, H2O, CO, CO2, and C1-C3 gases;
• d) condensing the vapour phase product of step c) to provide a liquid phase product comprising substantially fully deoxygenated C4+ hydrocarbon liquid and aqueous material and separating said liquid phase product from a gas phase product comprising H2, CO, CO2, and C1-C3 gases;
• e) removing the aqueous material from the substantially fully deoxygenated C4+ hydrocarbon liquid;
• and
• f) hydroprocessing at least a portion of the substantially fully deoxygenated C4+ hydrocarbon liquid in a hydroprocessing reactor vessel in the presence of hydrogen and one or more hydroprocessing catalysts, each hydroprocessing catalyst comprising at least one reduced metal on a solid support, in order to provide an upgraded liquid hydrocarbon stream;
• wherein the upgraded liquid hydrocarbon stream is reduced in total aromatics content, reduced in benzene content, increased in cetane number or a combination thereof, relative to the substantially fully deoxygenated C4+ hydrocarbon liquid.