The study evaluated the growth of Desmodesmus communis on column photobioreactor and its thermochemical treatment by catalytic pyrolysis using HZSM-5 zeolite. D. communis showed good results in terms of growth (0.05gL-1d-1). Analytical pyrolysis of original algae and derived bio-oil mixed with zeolite was used as a screening method in order to gather information on the cracking process. Preparative pyrolysis on bench scale reactor was performed on algae biomass over a zeolite bed at 1:10 ratio (wt/wt). Py-GC-MS of biomass/catalyst mixture showed that the denitrogenation/deoxygenation increased with increasing zeolite load from 1:5 to 1:20 ratio and became significant at 1:10 ratio. The composition observed by analytical pyrolysis was featured by the predominance of alkylated monoaromatic hydrocarbons. The scaling-up to bench scale confirmed the results obtained with analytical pyrolysis in terms of monoaromatic hydrocarbons. However, low yield of catalytic oil (8% by weight) was observed.
Keywords: Catalytic pyrolysis; Column photobioreactor; Desmodesmus communis; HZSM-5; Py-GC–MS.
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