Hydrothermal liquefaction pathways for low-nitrogen biocrude from wet algae

Technical Report · Tue Dec 13 04:00:00 EST 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1336268· OSTI ID:1336268

Tanzella, Francis ^[1]; Lim, Jin-Ping ^[2]

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1. SRI International, Menlo Park, CA (United States); SRI International
2. SRI International, Menlo Park, CA (United States)

Our SRI International (SRI) team has developed a new two-step hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) process to convert wet algal biomass into biocrude oil. The first step in the process (low-temperature HTL or HTL1) yields crude oil but, most importantly, it selectively dissolves nitrogen-containing compounds in the aqueous phase. Once the oil and the aqueous phase are separated, the low-nitrogen soft solids left behind can be taken to the second step (high-temperature HTL or HTL2) for full conversion to biocrude. HTL2 will hence yield low-nitrogen biocrude, which can be hydro-processed to yield transportation fuels. The expected high carbon yield and low nitrogen content can lead to a transportation fuel from algae that avoids two problems common to existing algae-to-fuel processes: (1) poisoning of the hydro-processing catalyst; and (2) inefficient conversion of algae-to-liquid fuels. The process we studied would yield a new route to strategic energy production from domestic sources.

• Research Organization: SRI International, Menlo Park, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Bioenergy Technologies Office (EE-3B)
• Contributing Organization: University of Dayton Research Institute; Los Alamos National Laboratory
• DOE Contract Number: EE0006635
• OSTI ID: 1336268
• Report Number(s): DOE-SRI--06635-1; DE-FOA-0000812
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS
Algae
Hydrothermal Liquefaction
biocrude