Thermochemical conversion of low-lipid microalgae for the production of liquid fuels: challenges and opportunities
The development of renewable biomass energy sources has attracted attention because of the potential for a sustainable fuel with a low carbon intensity. Microalgae are considered as a third generation biofuel, and have a notable advantage over other biomass in that they do not compete with food or c...
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| Published in | RSC advances Vol. 5; no. 24; pp. 18673 - 1871 |
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| Main Authors | , , , , , , |
| Format | Journal Article |
| Language | English |
| Published |
01.01.2015
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| Online Access | Get full text |
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| Summary: | The development of renewable biomass energy sources has attracted attention because of the potential for a sustainable fuel with a low carbon intensity. Microalgae are considered as a third generation biofuel, and have a notable advantage over other biomass in that they do not compete with food or cropland resources. The conversion of algal biomass into liquid fuels provides a long-term sustainable option for fuels production, which can be achieved in an environmentally compatible manner. Among the microalgal conversion methods, thermochemical conversion, which can make full use of all components in the algae, is viewed as one of the best conversion methods, especially for low-lipid microalgae. This article reviews recent developments in the field of algal biomass conversion into liquid fuels, with particular attention focused on the thermochemical conversion of low-lipid microalgae. We start with a brief introduction of microalgae and its biochemical components. After an overview of the main strategies involved in algal biomass conversion, we focus on the thermochemical conversion of algae, including pyrolysis and hydrothermal liquefaction and compare the two methods in detail. In addition, the catalytic upgrading of algae-derived crude bio-oil was also examined. An assessment is made of the challenges and opportunities of a commercial-scale microalgae-to-fuels process in light of mitigating technical, environmental, and logistical issues.
This
critical review
provides an investigation elaborated by recent references on conversion of low-lipid microalgae into bio-oil
via
pyrolysis and hydrothermal liquefaction, and the catalytic upgrading of algal-derived bio-oil was examined. |
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| Bibliography: | Jianlong Wang is a professor and deputy director of Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, Tsinghua University. He received his PhD from Harbin Institute of Technology in 1993. He worked at Leeds University (England) as a visiting professor from 1998 to 1999 and worked at Berlin Technical University (Germany) as a Humboldt Researcher from 2000 to 2002. Prof. Wang's research focuses on water and wastewater treatment, environmental biotechnology. Prof. Wang has published more than 300 papers in peer-reviewed academic journals. Yu Chen obtained his BS (2005) and MS (2009) degrees in chemistry from Shihezi University. After four years at the Tsinghua University for New Energy Conversion Technology as a research assistant, he started his PhD course on Chemical Engineering and Technology from Tsinghua University in 2013 under the supervision of Professors Mingde Yang and Yulong Wu. Chen is interested in catalytic conversions of microalgal biomass and novel utilizations of supercritical technology. Derun Hua earned his MS degree from University of Jinan in Shandong (2007) and his PhD degree from China University of Petroleum (2011), all in Chemical Engineering. He engaged in postdoctoral research at Tsinghua University in 2011. He has been an Associate Professor of Ganna Normal University in China since 2013. He has interests in conversion of biomass, and synthesis of catalyst. Mingde Yang received BS (1983) and MS (1986) degrees in Chemical Engineering from Heilongjiang University and Tsinghua University, respectively. Yang joined the faculty of the Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology at Tsinghua University, where he became Associate Professor in 1999, and was promoted to full professor in 2008. From 1991 to 1993, He was a visiting scientist at Karlsruhe University in Germany, and was a Visiting Research Scholar at Atomic Energy Research Institute in Japan in 1996. His main scientific interests are high efficient utilization of biomass resource, solvent extraction technology, and environmental treatment technology on catalysis, etc. Michael P. Harold is the Chairman and the M. D. Anderson Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Houston (UH). Harold, who received his chemical engineering education at Penn State (BS) and UH (PhD), is the author of more than 125 publications and has given over 275 presentations and invited lectures. He held earlier positions at University of Massachusetts (1985-1993) and DuPont Company (1993-2000). His honors include the Esther Farfel Award from UH and the ACS Richard A. Glenn Award. In 2011 Harold was appointed the 7th Editor-in-Chief of AIChE Journal. Yulong Wu is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology (INET), Tsinghua University. He received his BS (1994) from Wuhan University of Technology, and obtained an MS and PhD degree in Chemical Engineering from Tianjin University in 1998 and 2001, respectively. He became a Postdoc at Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, and then joined the faculty of INET, Tsinghua University. He has been an Associate Professor since 2007. From 2007-2008, he worked as visiting scholar at Saarland University in Germany. He became New Century Excellent Talent of Ministry of Education in 2012, and he became Member of Directors Board of China Energy Society in 2010. His main scientific interests are conversion of biomass energy, heterogeneous catalysis and resource chemical engineering. Chun Li is a Professor, PhD Supervisor, and Deputy Director of Academy of Sciences and Materials at Beijing Institute of Technology, China. He received his PhD in Biochemical Engineering from Tianjin University in 2001. He then went to Department of Chemical Engineering of Tsinghua University for his postdoctoral research for two years, and then worked at Shihezi University for three years. Later he worked on biomass refinery at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in 2011. Prof. Li has more than 10 years of scientific research experience related to biotransformation and enzyme engineering. |
| ISSN: | 2046-2069 2046-2069 |
| DOI: | 10.1039/c4ra13359e |