Abstract
Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) of microalgae is one of processes that can effectively remove moisture from microalgae. In addition, the hydrochar retains most of fatty acids from microalgae feedstock, and the content of fatty acids in hydrochar is doubled. This research concentrates on the comparison between direct transesterification of microalgae and hydrochar. The result shows that the biodiesel yields of hydrochar were higher than those of microalgae at the same reaction conditions due to the higher extraction rate of fatty acids from hydrochar. Finally, the amount of methanol and catalyst which is required for a given amount of microalgae can be reduced to a half through the direct transesterification of hydrochar.
Highlights
In recent years, the biofuels are studied with the aim of gradually replacing fossil fuels
This commercial type of microalgae contains a large amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids
Lu et al stated that the retention of fatty acids which have up to 3 double bonds was very high after Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) at 200 °C [9]
Summary
The biofuels are studied with the aim of gradually replacing fossil fuels. Microalgae have specific characteristics such as the high lipid content, the rapid growth rate, and the good adaptation to nonagricultural land [1], and these make microalgae more competitive than other types of feedstock in the production of biodiesel. In the first one called the two-step method, the lipids are firstly extracted by organic solvents, and the extracted-lipids undergo the transesterification process for biodiesel synthesis. In the other called the direct transesterification method, the lipids in microalgae are extracted and converted into biodiesel in one step. This method has some advantages such as the elimination of using extraction solvents and the higher biodiesel yield [2,3]. There are still some obstacles hindering the application of this method in the actual production
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