(395b) Kinetics of Pyrolysis-GCMS and Thermogravimetric Analysis of Oil-Laden Biomass Intermediate from Flashed-Hydrolyzed Microalgae

The continuous increase in price of petroleum-derived fuel has led to the need for an attractive and renewable-based feed stock such as biomass for energy generation. One of such energy sources is the prolific microalgae that has considerable amount of lipid, which can be converted to liquid hydrocarbon fuels(LHF). Not only can this feedstock be used to produce liquid fuel, but it can also be used as solid fuel or converted to gaseous fuel. To increase the usefulness of microalgae as solid or gaseous fuel feed stock, flash hydrolysis (chemical-free method) has been used to upgrade or concentrate the lipid content (10wt%) in the fresh microalgae to obtain biofuel intermediate(BI), which has 52wt% fatty acids. With this upgrade, the BI can be used directly as a solid fuel or converted to gaseous form via thermochemical conversion process such as pyrolysis, gasification, or liquefaction.

In the present study, the devolatilization kinetics of oil-laden BI pyrolysis using thermogravimetric analysis(TGA) was investigated. To further investigate the pyrolysis, a pyro-GCMS facility was used to analyze the products and the temperature at which these products were produced. Non-isothermal pyrolysis was performed by considering heating rate, gas flowrate, temperature range, and activation energy evaluation. SEM, BET, FT-IR, and XRD methods were used to characterize both fresh BI and its char.