Refinery ready bio-petroleum via novel catalytic hydrothermal processing of microalgae

培养微藻作为生物柴油生产的脂质替代来源，在产油和土地利用方面具有重大优势，并且可能能够减少制造厂和发电站的二氧化碳排放。然而，传统的生物柴油生产需要在酯交换前去除大量的水，这是微藻生物燃料的主要挑战之一。水热法是一种替代方法，它可以承受高含水量的原料，并涉及在热压缩水中处理微藻，有或没有添加催化剂。在脂质酯交换之前从藻类中除去水所需的能量很高，因此水热处理可以在能源，效率和简单性方面提供显着节省。这一过程有效地模拟了大自然，生产出低氧含量的生物石油，能量密度高达40MJ/Kg，与原油相似。在生物质生产方面，一些最具生产力的微藻含有较低的脂质含量和大量的蛋白质和碳水化合物，不是生物柴油生产的好竞争者。然而，水热处理可以将脂质、碳水化合物和蛋白质转化为生物石油，显著提高产量，同时仍然能够回收营养物用于藻类培养。水热处理的挑战是生产具有较低氧和杂原子含量（特别是N和S）的生物石油，并提高汽油和柴油的产量。申请人之前的研究表明，使用原位水相供氢体和多相催化剂可以通过将氮转化为氨并降低其分子量来提高生物石油的质量。拟议的研究将寻求确定能够降低生物石油中氮和氧含量的合适催化剂，这些催化剂与水相供氢体结合，将提供就地升级为具有可接受水平的N和s的炼油就绪生物石油。反应器设施将开发用于研究具有不同生化含量的一系列微藻的催化剂和添加剂行为。合适的催化剂将在水热条件下具有高活性和稳定性，其主要目的是降低温度和压力要求，从而减少相关的腐蚀问题，高压进料和降低工艺的能源需求。构建流动池反应器，开发新型微分析尺度热液注入器，用于催化剂和添加剂的快速筛选。一系列具有高稳定性和高酸度的金属掺杂形状选择性沸石将被评估，并将使用开发的设备研究它们的活性。

The cultivation of microalgae for use as an alternative source of lipids for biodiesel production is proposed to offer major advantages in terms of oil yields and land use and maybe capable of mitigating CO2 from manufacturing plant and power stations. However, conventional production of biodiesel requires removal of significant amounts of water before transesterification and this represents one of the major challenges for microalgae biofuels. Hydrothermal processing is an alternative route which can tolerate feedstock with high miosture content and involves processing the microalgae in hot compressed water with or without the addition of catalysts. The energy required to remove the water from algae before transesterification of the lipids is high therefore hydrothermal processing can offer significant savings in energy, efficiency and simplicity. This process effectively simulates nature and produces a low oxygen content bio-petroleum with a high energy density of upto 40MJ/Kg, similar to crude oil. Some of the most productive microalgae in terms of biomass production contain lower lipid content and larger amounts of protein and carbohydrate and not good contenders for biodiesel production. Hydrothermal processing however can convert the lipids, carbohydrates and protein to bio-petroleum increasing yields significantly whilst still being able to recycle nutrients for algal cultivation. The challenges for hydrothermal processing is to produce a bio-petroleum with lower oxygen and heteroatom content (in particular N and S) and increase the yields in the gasoline and diesel range. Previous research by the applicants has shown that using in situ aqueous phase hydrogen donors and heterogeneous catalysts can improve the quality of the bio-petroleum by converting the nitrogen to ammonia and reducing its molecular weight. The proposed research will seek to identify suitable catalysts capable of reducing the nitrogen and oxygen content of the bio-petroleum which in combination with aqueous phase hydrogen donors will provide in situ upgrading to refinery ready bio-petroleum with acceptable levels of N and S. Reactor facilities will be developed for investigating catalyst and additive behavior for a range of microalgae with different biochemical content. Suitable catalysts will be identified with high activity and stability under hydrothermal conditions with the main aim of reducing temperature and pressure requirements thus reducing the associated issues of corrosion, high pressure feeding and reducing the energy demands of the process. A flowing cell reactor will be constructed and a novel micro analytical scale hydrothermal injector will be developed for rapid screening of catalysts and additives. A range of metal doped shape selective zeolites will be evaluated with high stability and high acidity and their activity will be investigated using the developed facilities.