Algaenan containing algae are promising candidates for biofuel production due to algaenan’s highly aliphatic nature and propensity to produce liquid fuels on heating. The high heteroatom content derived from proteins and carbohydrates in raw algae results in an algal derived biofuel rich in nitrogen and oxygen content. A fuel rich in nitrogen and oxygen will produce NOx gases that are harmful to the environment and reduce fuel efficiency. In efforts to reduce the heteroatom content of the biofuel, the algal biomass is first thermally treated to produce a biofuel intermediate residue with reduced protein and carbohydrate content. The degradation rates of carbohydrates and proteins are determined at various temperatures by use of 13C solid-state NMR to calculate relative concentrations of carbohydrates and proteins. Results from 13C solid-state NMR show that the intermediate solid displays a reduction in peaks representative of carbohydrates and proteins after the low temperature thermal treatments. The use of the two-dimensional molecular mixing model provides estimates of the remaining concentrations of carbohydrates and proteins. These estimates are used to calculate the rate constants from different temperature treatments. The rate constants for the removal of carbohydrates and proteins show that the decomposition of proteins occurs faster than carbohydrates regardless of temperature. Preliminary kinetic determinations of Arrhenius parameters indicate that the activation energy for removal of proteins and carbohydrates are 70.9 kJ/mol and 92.9 kJ/mol, respectively. Similarly, the pre-exponential factor is 6.07 x 106 for proteins and 1.08 x 109 for carbohydrates. This kinetic information gives greater insight into the decomposition process for possible commercial biofuel production use.

Kinetic study of simulated diagenesis on scenedesmus algae

Where thousands of chemistry professionals meet to share ideas and advance scientific and technical knowledge. Spring 2023 abstracts, posters, and presentations will launch at the end of March.

ACS Spring 2023

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.