Methods for co-production of alkylbenzene and biofuel from natural oils using hydrocracking

A method for co-production of an alkylbenzene product and a biofuel from natural oil source triglycerides comprising:

• deoxygenating the triglycerides to form a deoxygenated product comprising water, carbon dioxide, propane, a first portion of paraffins, and a second portion of paraffins;
• fractionating the deoxygenated product to separate a first stream of paraffins and a second stream of paraffins;
• hydrocracking the first stream of paraffins to form a normal paraffin stream and an isoparaffin stream;
• dehydrogenating the normal paraffin stream to provide mono-olefins;
• alkylating benzene with the mono-olefins under alkylation conditions to provide an alkylation effluent comprising alkylbenzenes and benzene;
• isolating the alkylbenzenes to provide the alkylbenzene product;
• and
• isomerizing the second stream of paraffins and the isoparaffin stream to form biofuel.

A method for co-production of an alkylbenzene product and biofuel from a natural oil comprising:

• deoxygenating the natural oil with hydrogen to form a stream comprising paraffins;
• hydrocracking the paraffins to form a normal paraffin stream and an isoparaffin stream;
• dehydrogenating the normal paraffin stream to provide mono-olefins and hydrogen;
• recycling the hydrogen to support deoxygenation of the natural oil;
• alkylating benzene with the mono-olefins under alkylation conditions to provide an alkylation effluent comprising alkylbenzenes and benzene;
• isolating the alkylbenzenes to provide the alkylbenzene product;
• and
• isomerizing the isoparaffin stream to form biofuel.