Drop-in hydrocarbon fuels

Drop-in hydrocarbon biofuels, also called green hydrocarbon biofuels or renewable hydrocarbon biofuels and are fuels produced by a variety of biological, thermal, and chemical processes. They are chemically identical to petroleum gasoline or diesel fuel and so compatible with existing petroleum refining and distribution infrastructure but with the advantage of being renewable.

Many drop-in fuels are produced by converting industrial chemical compounds derived from animal and vegetable oil or fat (oleochemicals) such as used cooking oil, tallow or fats. However the processes such as gasification, pyrolysis and hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) are a way to produce drop-in biofuels from biomass stocks.

Discussion's around the sustainability of biofuels at scale often focus on the ability to replenish stocks of the feed materials, which a greater challenge for oleochemicals than biomass, but in both cases the challenge is the land area required to produce the feeds, which may be used for food production. The main advantage of liquid biofuels from oleochemcals on the small scale is the availability of supply from recycled cooking oils and the ability to almost directly use these in vehicles. Biomass can also be sourced from reclaimed materials such as timber waste but needs to be processed in larger plants to create a useful fuel.

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