Synthetic fluids and methods of manufacture

Abstract

A method for producing synthetic fluids from TGFA's harvested from genetically modified seed crops in which all of the fatty acids in the TGFA's from the seeds of a crop have the same carbon atom chain length, preferably C12 or C14, and the synthetic fluids produced by the method. The TGFA's are hydroprocessed to cleave the fatty acids from the glycol backbone and to hydrodeoxygenate and isomerize the fatty acids to form single carbon chain length isoparaffins having a controlled degree of branching with minimum cracking. Controlled mixtures of hydrocarbon components, in which each hydrocarbon component of the mixture has a different single carbon atom chain length, are produced. The relative ratios of the single carbon atom number hydrocarbons in the mixture are selected to optimize the characteristics of the synthetic fluid product for a given application, if the end product is an SDF, the severity of the hydrotreatment is controlled such that the degree of cracking is minimized and the isomers generated are primarily monomethyl isoparaffins. If the end product is a jet fuel blend stock, the hydrotreatment is somewhat more severe in order to generate multiple branched isomers that have improved aerobic biodegradability and low temperature properties. The degree of hydrotreatment is controlled to limit the degree of branching in order to preserve the required thermal and oxidative stability properties, and to minimize cracking.