Journal
BIORESOURCE TECHNOLOGY
Volume 118, Issue -, Pages 150-157Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2012.05.080
Keywords
Algae; Bio-oil; Catalytic pyrolysis; Fixed-bed reactor; ZSM-5
Funding
- Alabama Agricultural and Experiment Station (AAES)
- Southeastern SunGrant
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Microalgae are considered as an intriguing candidate for biofuel production due to their high biomass yield. Studies on bio-oil production through fast pyrolysis and upgrading to hydrocarbon fuels using algal biomass are limited as compared to other terrestrial biomass. Therefore, in this study, a fresh water green alga, Chlorella vulgaris, was taken for pyrolysis study. The average activation energy for pyrolysis zone was found to be 109.1 kJ/mol. Fixed-bed pyrolysis of algae gave a bio-oil yield of 52.7 wt.%, which accounts for 60.7 wt.% carbon yield. In addition, analytical pyrolysis of C. vulgaris was carried out in a Py/GC-MS to identify major compounds present in bio-oil with and without catalyst (H(+)ZSM-5). The study found that in catalytic-pyrolysis, as the catalyst loading increased from zero to nine times of the biomass, the carbon yield of aromatic hydrocarbons increased from 0.9 to 25.8 wt.%. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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