Microwave-enhanced pyrolysis of macroalgae and microalgae for syngas production

Yu Hong; Wanru Chen; Xiang Luo; Chengheng Pang; Edward Lester; Tao Wu

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2017.02.006

Microwave-enhanced pyrolysis of macroalgae and microalgae for syngas production

Bioresour Technol. 2017 Aug:237:47-56. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2017.02.006. Epub 2017 Feb 14.

Authors

Yu Hong¹, Wanru Chen¹, Xiang Luo², Chengheng Pang³, Edward Lester⁴, Tao Wu⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, The University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo 315100, PR China.
² New Materials Institute, The University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo 315100, PR China; Municipal Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Conversion Technologies, The University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo 315100, PR China.
³ Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, The University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo 315100, PR China; New Materials Institute, The University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo 315100, PR China.
⁴ Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, The University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK.
⁵ New Materials Institute, The University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo 315100, PR China; Municipal Key Laboratory of Clean Energy Conversion Technologies, The University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo 315100, PR China. Electronic address: tao.wu@nottingham.edu.cn.

PMID: 28283330
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2017.02.006

Abstract

In this study, three different marine biomasses, i.e., microalgae-spirulina, chlorella and macroalgae-porphyra, were pyrolyzed in a laboratory-scale multimode-microwave cavity at 400, 550 and 700°C. Ovalbumin and cellulose were also chosen as model compounds to simulate algae. The influence of heating rate on pyrolysis and the βi curves of different samples under different temperatures were studied in detail. The porphyra was found to be the most reactive and produced the largest gaseous fraction (87.1wt%) amongst the three algae, which comprised of 73.3vol% of syngas. It was found that nitrogenated compounds in bio-oil were derived from protein in algae while carbohydrate led to the formation of PAHs. For the production of bio-oil, protein-rich microalgae is favorable compared with porphyra due to their lower amount of PAHs, while porphyra is more suitable for the production of H₂+CO rich gas product, which is comparable with that of conventional gasification processes.

Keywords: Bio-oil; Macroalgae; Microalgae; Microwave-enhanced pyrolysis; Syngas.

MeSH terms

Biofuels*
Chlorella
Microalgae*
Microwaves*
Seaweed

Substances

Biofuels