Direct liquefaction of Dunaliella tertiolecta for bio-oil in sub/supercritical ethanol-water

This paper presents bio-oil preparation by direct liquefaction of Dunaliella tertiolecta (D. tertiolecta) with sub/supercritical ethanol-water as the medium in a batch autoclave with high temperature and high pressure. The results indicated that ethanol and water showed synergistic effects on direct liquefaction of D. tertiolecta. The maximum bio-oil yield was 64.68%, with an optimal D. tertiolecta conversion of 98.24% in sub/supercritical ethanol-water. The detailed chemical compositional analysis of the bio-oil was performed using an EA, FT-IR, and GC-MS. The empirical formulas of the bio-oil obtained using the ethanol-water co-solvent (40%, v/v) and sole water as the reaction medium were CH(1.52)O(0.14)N(0.06) and CH(1.43)O(0.23)N(0.09), with calorific values of 34.96 and 29.80 MJ kg(-1), respectively. XPS and SEM results showed that ethanol-water is a very effective reaction medium in the liquefaction. A plausible reaction mechanism of the main chemical component in D. tertiolecta is proposed based on our results and the literatures.