Nitrogen distribution in the products from the hydrothermal liquefaction of Chlorella sp. and Spirulina sp.

Abstract

The high contents of nitrogen-containing organic compounds in biocrude obtained from hydrothermal liquefaction of microalgae are one of the most concerned issues on the applications and environment. In the project, Chlorella sp. and Spirulina sp. were selected as raw materials to investigate the influence of different reaction conditions (i.e., reaction temperature, residence time, solid loading rate) on the distribution of nitrogen in the oil phase and aqueous phase. Three main forms of nitrogen-containing organic compounds including nitrogen-heterocyclic compounds, amide, and amine were detected in biocrudes. The contents of nitrogen-heterocyclic compounds decreased with temperature while amide kept increasing. The effect of residence time on the components of nitrogen-containing organic compounds was similar with that of temperature. However, the influence of solid loading rate was insignificant. Moreover, it was also found that the differences of amino acids in the protein components in the two microalgae might affect the nitrogen distribution in products. For example, nitrogen in basic amino acids of Spirulina sp. preferred to go into the aqueous phase comparing with the nitrogen in neutral amino acids of Chlorella sp. In summary, a brief reaction map was proposed to describe the nitrogen pathway during microalgae hydrothermal liquefaction.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

microalgae / hydrothermal liquefaction / biocrude / nitrogen distribution

References

[1] Monari C, Righi S, Olsen S. Greenhouse gas emissions and energy balance of biodiesel production from microalgae cultivated in photobioreactors in Denmark: a life-cycle modeling. Journal of Cleaner Production, 2016, 112: 4084–4092

[2] Chopra J, Mahesh D, Yerrayya A, Vinu R, Kumar R, Sen R. Performance enhancement of hydrothermal liquefaction for strategic and sustainable valorization of de-oiled yeast biomass into green bio-crude. Journal of Cleaner Production, 2019, 227: 292–301

[3] Egesa D, Chuck C, Plucinski P. Multifunctional role of magnetic nanoparticles in efficient microalgae separation and catalytic hydrothermal liquefaction. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 2018, 6(1): 991–999

[4] Cheng S, Wei L, Alsowij M, Corbin F, Boakye E, Gu Z, Raynie D. Catalytic hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of biomass for bio-crude production using Ni/HZSM-5 catalysts. AIMS Environmental Science, 2017, 4(3): 417–430

[5] Koley S, Khadase M, Mathimani T, Raheman H, Mallick N. Catalytic and non-catalytic hydrothermal processing of Scenedesmus obliquus biomass for bio-crude production—a sustainable energy perspective. Energy Conversion and Management, 2018, 163: 111–121

[6] Hu Y, Gong M, Xu C, Bassi A. Investigation of an alternative cell disruption approach for improving hydrothermal liquefaction of microalgae. Fuel, 2017, 197: 138–144

[7] Alba L, Torri C, Samori C, Van der Spek J, Fabbri D, Kersten S, Brilman D. Hydrothermal treatment (HIT) of microalgae: evaluation of the process as conversion method in an algae biorefinery concept. Energy & Fuels, 2012, 26(1): 642–657

[8] Saravanan A, Mathimani T, Deviram G, Rajendran K, Pugazhendhi A. Biofuel policy in India: a review of policy barriers in sustainable marketing of biofuel. Journal of Cleaner Production, 2018, 193: 734–747

[9] Mata T, Martins A, Caetano N. Microalgae for biodiesel production and other applications: a review. Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2010, 14(1): 217–232

[10] Tekin K, Karagoz S, Bektas S. A review of hydrothermal biomass processing. Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2014, 40: 673–687

[11] Dimitriadis A, Bezergianni S. Hydrothermal liquefaction of various biomass and waste feedstocks for biocrude production: a state of the art review. Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2017, 68: 113–125

[12] Peterson A, Vogel F, Lachance R, Froling M, Antal M Jr, Tester J. Thermochemical biofuel production in hydrothermal media: a review of sub- and supercritical water technologies. Energy & Environmental Science, 2008, 1(1): 32–65

[13] Biller P, Sharma B, Kunwar B, Ross A. Hydroprocessing of bio-crude from continuous hydrothermal liquefaction of microalgae. Fuel, 2015, 159: 197–205

[14] Duan P, Wang B, Xu Y. Catalytic hydrothermal upgrading of crude bio-oils produced from different thermo-chemical conversion routes of microalgae. Bioresource Technology, 2015, 186: 58–66

[15] Hognon C, Delrue F, Texier J, Grateau M, Thiery S, Miller H, Roubaud A. Comparison of pyrolysis and hydrothermal liquefaction of Chlamydomonas reinharcltii. Growth studies on the recovered hydrothermal aqueous phase. Biomass and Bioenergy, 2015, 73: 23–31

[16] Guo Y, Yeh T, Song W, Xu D, Wang S. A review of bio-oil production from hydrothermal liquefaction of algae. Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2015, 48: 776–790

[17] Gai C, Zhang Y, Chen W, Zhang P, Dong Y. An investigation of reaction pathways of hydrothermal liquefaction using Chlorella pyrenoidosa and Spirulina platensis. Energy Conversion and Management, 2015, 96: 330–339

[18] Gai C, Zhang Y, Chen W, Zhou Y, Schideman L, Zhang P, Tommaso G, Kuo C, Dong Y. Characterization of aqueous phase from the hydrothermal liquefaction of Chlorella pyrenoidosa. Bioresource Technology, 2015, 184: 328–335

[19] Chen W, Tang L, Qian W, Scheppe K, Nair K, Wu Z, Gai C, Zhang P, Zhang Y. Extract nitrogen-containing compounds in biocrude oil converted from wet biowaste via hydrothermal liquefaction. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 2016, 4(4): 2182–2190

[20] Miao C, Chakraborty M, Chen S. Impact of reaction conditions on the simultaneous production of polysaccharides and bio-oil from heterotrophically grown Chlorella sorokiniana by a unique sequential hydrothermal liquefaction process. Bioresource Technology, 2012, 110: 617–627

[21] Jazrawi C, Biller P, He Y, Montoya A, Ross A, Maschmeyer T, Haynes B. Two-stage hydrothermal liquefaction of a high-protein microalga. Algal Research-Biomass Biofuels and Bioproducts, 2015, 8: 15–22

[22] Montero-Hidalgo M, Espada J, Rodriguez R, Morales V, Bautista L, Vicente G. Mild hydrothermal pretreatment of microalgae for the production of biocrude with a low N and O content. Processes (Basel, Switzerland), 2019, 7(9): 1–14

[23] Lu J, Liu Z, Zhang Y, Li B, Lu Q, Ma Y, Shen R, Zhu Z. Improved production and quality of biocrude oil from low-lipid high-ash macroalgae Enteromorpha prolifera via addition of crude glycerol. Journal of Cleaner Production, 2017, 142: 749–757

[24] Tang X, Zhang C, Yang X. Optimizing process of hydrothermal liquefaction of microalgae via flash heating and isolating aqueous extract from bio-crude. Journal of Cleaner Production, 2020, 258: 120660

[25] Qiu Y, Aierzhati A, Cheng J, Guo H, Yang W, Zhang Y. Biocrude oil production through the Maillard reaction between leucine and glucose during hydrothermal liquefaction. Energy & Fuels, 2019, 33(9): 8758–8765

[26] Chen X, Peng X, Ma X, Wang J. Investigation of Mannich reaction during co-liquefation of microalgae and sweet potato waste. Bioresource Technology, 2019, 284: 286–292

[27] Sheng L, Wang X, Yang X. Prediction model of biocrude yield and nitrogen heterocyclic compounds analysis by hydrothermal liquefaction of microalgae with model compounds. Bioresource Technology, 2018, 247: 14–20

[28] Hossain F, Kosinkova J, Brown R, Ristovski Z, Hankamer B, Stephens E, Rainey T. Experimental investigations of physical and chemical properties for microalgae HTL bio-crude using a large batch reactor. Energies, 2017, 10(467): 1–16

[29] Toor S, Rosendahl L, Rudolf A. Hydrothermal liquefaction of biomass: a review of subcritical water technologies. Energy, 2011, 36(5): 2328–2342

[30] Elliott D, Hart T, Schmidt A, Neuenschwander G, Rotness L, Olarte M, Zacher A, Albrecht K, Hallen R, Holladay J. Process development for hydrothermal liquefaction of algae feedstocks in a continuous-flow reactor. Algal Research-Biomass Biofuels and Bioproducts, 2013, 2(4): 445–454

[31] Huang R, Cheng J, Qiu Y, Zhang Z, Zhou J, Cen K. Solvent-free lipid extraction from microalgal biomass with subcritical water in a continuous flow reactor for acid-catalyzed biodiesel production. Fuel, 2019, 253: 90–94

[32] Yu G, Zhang Y, Guo B, Funk T, Schideman L. Nutrient flows and quality of bio-crude oil produced via catalytic hydrothermal liquefaction of low-lipid microalgae. BioEnergy Research, 2014, 7(4): 1317–1328

[33] Matayeva A, Bianchi D, Chiaberge S, Cavani F, Basile F. Elucidation of reaction pathways of nitrogenous species by hydrothermal liquefaction process of model compounds. Fuel, 2019, 240: 169–178

[34] Akiya N, Savage P. Roles of water for chemical reactions in high-temperature water. Chemical Reviews, 2002, 102(8): 2725–2750

[35] Obeid R, Lewis D, Smith N, Van Eyk P. The elucidation of reaction kinetics for hydrothermal liquefaction of model macromolecules. Chemical Engineering Journal, 2019, 370: 637–645

[36] Abbat S, Dhaked D, Arfeen M, Bharatam P. Mechanism of the Paal-Knorr reaction: the importance of water mediated hemialcohol pathway. RSC Advances, 2015, 5(107): 88353–88366

[37] Chen W, Zhang Y, Zhang J, Yu G, Schideman L, Zhang P, Minarick M. Hydrothermal liquefaction of mixed-culture algal biomass from wastewater treatment system into bio-crude oil. Bioresource Technology, 2014, 152: 130–139

[38] Li D, Chen L, Zhang X, Ye N, Xing F. Pyrolytic characteristics and kinetic studies of three kinds of red algae. Biomass and Bioenergy, 2011, 35(5): 1765–1772

[39] Tian C, Liu Z, Zhang Y, Li B, Cao W, Lu H, Duan N, Zhang L, Zhang T. Hydrothermal liquefaction of harvested high-ash low-lipid algal biomass from Dianchi lake: effects of operational parameters and relations of products. Bioresource Technology, 2015, 184: 336–343

[40] Yu G, Zhang Y, Schideman L, Funk T, Wang Z. Distributions of carbon and nitrogen in the products from hydrothermal liquefaction of low-lipid microalgae. Energy & Environmental Science, 2011, 4(11): 4587–4595

[41] Li H, Liu Z, Zhang Y, Li B, Lu H, Duan N, Liu M, Zhu Z, Si B. Conversion efficiency and oil quality of low-lipid high-protein and high-lipid low-protein microalgae via hydrothermal liquefaction. Bioresource Technology, 2014, 154: 322–329

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Higher Education Press