Hydrothermal liquefaction pathways for low-nitrogen biocrude from wet algae
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Abstract:
Our SRI International (SRI) team has developed a new two-step hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) process to convert wet algal biomass into biocrude oil. The first step in the process (low-temperature HTL or HTL1) yields crude oil but, most importantly, it selectively dissolves nitrogen-containing compounds in the aqueous phase. Once the oil and the aqueous phase are separated, the low-nitrogen soft solids left behind can be taken to the second step (high-temperature HTL or HTL2) for full conversion to biocrude. HTL2 will hence yield low-nitrogen biocrude, which can be hydro-processed to yield transportation fuels. The expected high carbon yield and low nitrogen content can lead to a transportation fuel from algae that avoids two problems common to existing algae-to-fuel processes: (1) poisoning of the hydro-processing catalyst; and (2) inefficient conversion of algae-to-liquid fuels. The process we studied would yield a new route to strategic energy production from domestic sources.Keywords:
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Algae fuel
Carbon fibers
Algae fuel
Environmentally Friendly
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The efficiency and cost effectiveness of using algae to create biofuel has been much debated in recent years. A household-based biofuel system that uses sewage as a medium in which to grow mixed algae cultures is a possible solution to decreasing the production and transportation costs of biofuel. Aside from the manufacturing issues involved, it is important to determine what variables most affect the growth of algae and the production of biofuel. This study presents the results of an ANOVA-based set of experiments that evaluate the effect of several variables on algae growth in wastewater. While much work remains to be done, these results will help determine the optimal environmental conditions for a household-based biofuel system that utilizes mixed algae cultures.
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Biofuel production from algae feedstock has become a topic of interest in the recent decades since algae biomass cultivation is feasible in aquaculture and does therefore not compete with use of arable land. In the present work, hydrothermal liquefaction of both microalgae and macroalgae is evaluated for biofuel production and compared with transesterifying lipids extracted from microalgae as a benchmark process. The focus of the evaluation is on both the energy and carbon footprint performance of the processes. In addition, integration of the processes with an oil refinery has been assessed with regard to heat and material integration. It is shown that there are several potential benefits of co-locating an algae-based biorefinery at an oil refinery site and that the use of macroalgae as feedstock is more beneficial than the use of microalgae from a system energy performance perspective. Macroalgae-based hydrothermal liquefaction achieves the highest system energy efficiency of 38.6%, but has the lowest yield of liquid fuel (22.5 MJ per 100 MJalgae) with a substantial amount of solid biochar produced (28.0 MJ per 100 MJalgae). Microalgae-based hydrothermal liquefaction achieves the highest liquid biofuel yield (54.1 MJ per 100 MJalgae), achieving a system efficiency of 30.6%. Macro-algae-based hydrothermal liquefaction achieves the highest CO2 reduction potential, leading to savings of 24.5 resp 92 kt CO2eq/year for the two future energy market scenarios considered, assuming a constant feedstock supply rate of 100 MW algae, generating 184.5, 177.1 and 229.6 GWhbiochar/year, respectively. Heat integration with the oil refinery is only possible to a limited extent for the hydrothermal liquefaction process routes, whereas the lipid extraction process can benefit to a larger extent from heat integration due to the lower temperature level of the process heat demand.
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