Renewable Transportation Fuel Production from Algal Biocrude Oil Converted via Hydrothermal Liquefaction

The goal of this project is to understand the properties of biocrude oil converted from algal biomass, such as Spirulina (SP), which can thrive in wastewater. Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is an effective technology to convert wet biowaste into biocrude oil. Our previous study showed that the biocrude oil converted from wet biowaste via HTL contains comparable heating values (HHV) to that of transportation fuels, such as gasoline. However, because of the lack of up-scaled production and proper separation of HTL biocrude oil, the application of HTL biocrude oil still remains unknown. In this study, the biocrude oil converted from low-lipid algae is separated into different fractions by the distillation process. The distillation test shows that 62% of HTL algal biocrude oil can be distilled at about 270 Celsius, indicating that the algal biofuel is promising to be used as transportation fuels such as jet fuel and diesel. In addition, by comparing the distillation curves of HTL biocrude oil converted from swine manure and food processing waste, it is noticed that 41% of biocrude oil converted from swine manure are distilled at around 200 Celsius which is similar to that of HTL algal biocrude oil, while HTL biocrude oil converted from food processing waste has a much higher boiling point distribution and over 75% of the biocrude oil is distilled at around 330 Celsius. Detailed physicochemical characterizations have been examined and were compared to those of petroleum transportation fuel, such as jet fuel and diesel, and those of HTL biocrude oil converted from other feedstocks, such as swine manure and food processing waste. Moreover, the fuel spec, such as the net heat of combustion, of the drop-in biodiesel, which is prepared by 10% of SP-derived distillates and 90% of diesel, was examined to indicate the compatibility of HTL algal biocrude oil in petroleum diesel. Ultimately, it is expected that this study can help understand the biofuel properties as well as provide insights for future application of HTL algal biocrude oil.Ope