Manufacture of renewable distillate from bio-oils

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for hydroprocessing of bio-derived feeds, such as bio-oils and/or other types of feeds including triglycerides, fatty acids, and/or fatty acid derivatives. The systems and methods can assist with maintaining a desired temperature profile within a reactor while performing hydroprocessing on a feed with substantial oxygen content. In various aspects, the initial bed of the reactor can be exposed to 30 vol % or less of the total fresh feed. The remaining portions of the fresh feed can be introduced below one or more of the catalyst beds in the reactor. By reducing or minimizing the amount of fresh feed introduced upstream from the initial catalyst bed that contains a catalyst with hydrodeoxygenation activity, the net amount of product recycle can be reduced or minimized while still maintaining a target temperature profile across individual catalyst beds and/or across the reactor.