Hydrothermal carbonization of natural microalgae containing a high ash content

The potential to convert natural microalgae (Scenedesmus) into solid fuels by hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) was evaluated. The deashing microalgae (DA) were obtained by acid-washing natural microalgae (NM) with HCl. The deashing efficiency was high from 44.66% for NM to 14.45% for DA. HTC carried out at temperature in the range from 180 to 260 degrees C with this two types feedstock (i.e. NM and DA). The results showed that DA-derived hydrochars had good physicochemical and fuel properties compared with that of NM-derived hydrochars. HTC process of DA was mainly based on polymerization, and the hydrolysis process was short. The hydrochars obtained from DA at 220 degrees C (HC-D220) had the highest value of 51.86% with a carbon content and fixed carbon content 1.15 and 1.33 times, respectively, greater than that of DA. The high heating value (HHV) of HC-D220 reached 26.64 MJ/kg which is equivalent to medium-high calorific coal. The thermogravimetric analysis (TG) demonstrated that the hydrochars derived from DA have good combustion properties with stable at high temperature zones. They can easily mix with coal or replace coal in combustion application. The results of this study revealed that natural microalgae can be utilized by hydrothermal carbonization to generate renewable fuel resources.