Hydro-Upgrading of Algal Biocrude in Tetralin for the Production of
High-Quality Liquid Fuel: Process Intensification
Abstract
Herein, we report a new process for intensified hydro-upgrading of a
biocrude produced from the hydrothermal processing of Auxenochlorella
pyrenoidosa (AuP) in tetralin at a mass ratio of 1:1 with the addition
of 10 wt.% Pt/C and 8 MPa H2 at different temperatures (300-480 °C) and
times (1-8 h). Under the selected reaction conditions, the gaseous
products were replaced with fresh H2 at regular time intervals; this
process was then continued until the total reaction time was over.
Increasing the number of H2 replacement times decrease the C, N, O, and
S contents and increased the H content. The treated bio-oil mainly
consisted of aromatic, saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons. Overall,
H2 replacement removed some of the denitrogenation, desulfurization, and
deoxygenation products and avoided secondary reactions of gaseous
products with the bio-oil, thus promoting the hydrogenation reaction and
N, O, and S removal from the treated bio-oil.