The purpose of this project is to investigate alternatives to fossil fuel consumption by using renewable and environmentally beneficial biomass to produce bio-oil via hydrothermal liquefaction in the presence of catalysts. The selected biomass is a broken cell powder that contained a mixture of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms that belong to the genus Chlorella that utilizes CO2 for photosynthesis and emits O2 as a by-product. The carbon fixating properties of the biomass feedstocks could neutralize or reduce the amount of greenhouse gasses emitted when burning oils for fuel. Based on its carbohydrate and protein content, and lipid density, Chlorella was chosen for its potential to have an high yield of bio-oil with energy contents. Hydrothermal liquefaction is used in the synthesis of bio-crude oil by means of sub-supercritical water at around 350°C to break down components of organic matter into bio-oil. The properties of the resulting bio-oil produced with different catalytic loadings were compared with that of crude oil. The addition of the catalyst KOH, is suggested by the literature to speed up the conversion of lipids into fatty acids and hydrocarbons found in bio-oil. The energy densities of the bio-oils at different catalytic loadings are compared to the average energy density of crude oil. While the energy densities of the various bio-oils with catalyst loadings from 10% to 20% have a lower energy density (~35 vs 42 MJ/Kg) and yield (25-37% vs 37-44%) than that of uncatalyzed bio-oil, there is promise that further adjusting the parameters of the experiment, such as temperature, water to biomass ratio, lower KOH loading, etc., could yield a better optimized bio-oil comparable or better than crude oil while reducing greenhouse gases.

Synthesis of bio-oil via the hydrothermal liquefaction of chlorella in the presence of a KOH

254th National Meeting (2017)

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