Abstract
Hydrothermal liquefaction of different microalgae samples ( Arthrospira platensis cultivated by our research group) – fresh (directly after harvesting), dried and frozen – have been performed. In hydrothermal liquefaction process, the samples were heated up to 300°C for 30 min and kept at a constant temperature for 60 min. Then dichloromethane was added to the samples to extract the oil fraction. The products obtained after aqueous and dichloromethane solutions evaporation are referred to as water soluble organics and bio-oil correspondingly. The experiments on hydrothermal liquefaction of microalgae pre-treated in different ways were conducted for three independent harvest samples. The average values of bio-oil yield in the experiments with fresh, dried and frozen microalgae were equal to 44.07%, 39.97% and 39.65%, respectively. The average yields of water soluble organics were equal to 19.34%, 29.00% and 21.43% respectively. In all the experiments, the highest yield of bio-oil was reached for fresh microalgae. From this point of view, direct hydrothermal liquefaction processing of fresh microalgae seems to be more preferable that further enhances the advantage of hydrothermal liquefaction in comparison with other biomass-to-biofuel conversion methods.
Highlights
The growth of world energy consumption and the resulting increase in greenhouse gases emissions into the atmosphere stimulate the use of renewable energy sources, including bioenergy
Fuel derived from microalgae is referred to a separate group of so-called “third-generation biofuels” because this type of biomass is not a food raw material and it is grown for energy purposes in the areas unsuitable for crop production
The main objective of the present paper is to study the yield and composition of BO produced by Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) using different microalgae samples: fresh, dried, frozen and dried and mixed with olive oil (25 wt. %)
Summary
The growth of world energy consumption and the resulting increase in greenhouse gases emissions into the atmosphere stimulate the use of renewable energy sources, including bioenergy. One of the most promising sources of renewable biofuel is microalgae. Fuel derived from microalgae is referred to a separate group of so-called “third-generation biofuels” because this type of biomass is not a food raw material and it is grown for energy purposes in the areas unsuitable for crop production. Microalgae are microscopic organisms efficiently converting the energy of sunlight into biomass. The growth of microalgae is associated with the capturing of carbon dioxide. The productivity of microalgae biomass and oil (lipids) is 10 times higher than that of terrestrial biomass (Chernova et al, 2014)
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