Microalgae biomass cultivation in photobioreactor aiming at clean and renewable energy production utilizing natural products

• Grant number: 21/12246-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2022
• End date: February 29, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry - Organic Chemistry
• Principal Investigator: Ian Castro-Gamboa
• Grantee: Pedro Tito Ferreira da Silva Dias
• Host Institution: Instituto de Química (IQ). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araraquara. Araraquara , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Fuel production from renewable resources is of extreme importance, especially nowadays. A promising source of biomass for this production is microalgae, photosynthetic unicellular organisms present in almost all aquatic and terrestrial environments, considered the main oxygen producers on Earth. Recently, they have been studied for biomass production based on their high biomass productivity and the ability to be cultivated in low environment impact regions, different from other forms of biomass, such as wood or sugar cane. The biomass to biofuel converting process may be conducted in multiple ways. An advantageous route is Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL), in which a water-biomass mixture is heated in a high-pressure environment to high temperatures in order to convert the algae biomass into a bio-oil, or biofuel. Since there is no need to dry the biomass, much energy is saved in comparison to other processes, such as pyrolysis. In this case, the biomass is sourced from a carbon-fixing organism (via photosynthesis), therefore this process qualifies as carbon neutral (no additional CO2 is added to the atmosphere) and, the produced biofuel is safer for the environment. This project proposes to study the biomass-producing quality of microalgae and the process variables of HTL in a bench-scale reactor producing high energy density bio-oil.(AU)