Article Sidebar
DOI:
10.4314/njt.v37i3.18Keywords:
Article Details
Copyright belongs to the Faculty of Engineering, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria
The contents of the articles are the sole opinion of the author(s) and not of NIJOTECH.
NIJOTECH allows open access for distribution of the published articles in any media so long as whole (not part) of articles are distributed.
A copyright and statement of originality documents will need to be filled out clearly and signed prior to publication of an accepted article. The Copyright form can be downloaded from https://www.nijotech.com/downloads/COPYRIGHT%20FORM.pdf while the Statement of Originality is in Statement of Originality.pdf (nijotech.com)
For articles that were developed from funded research, a clear acknowledgement of such support should be mentioned in the article with relevant references. Authors are expected to provide complete information on the sponsorship and intellectual property rights of the article together with all exceptions.
It is forbidden to publish the same research report in more than one journal.
Main Article Content
Effects of separation methods on yield and quality of biocrude after thermochemical liquefaction of marine microalgae
Abstract
Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a promising process for conversion of microalgae to biocrude that is upgradable to liquid transportation fuel. However, there is yet to be established standard separation method for product recovery. In this paper, the effects of separation methods on yields and quality of biocrude were investigated. HTL studies were conducted at operating conditions of 350oC and 5min with solids loading of 16wt%. The results shows that multistep extraction of product mixture led to ~65wt% biocrude yield compared to ~48wt% for single step. Multistep extraction led to increase in biocrude yield, with lower yields in solid residue and aqueous phases. However with the trade-offs of nitrogenous and oxygenated compounds in biocrude. Quality of biocrude was improved after vacuum evaporation of biocrude phase at 100oC when compared to evaporation at 40oC. The separation methods had little impact on biocrude energy density, which varies between 34MJ/kg and 38MJ/kg, 1.5 and 1.7 for hydrogen-to-carbon atomic ratios.
Keywords: Biocrude; Energy; Hydrothermal liquefaction; Microalgae; Separation methods
