(2015) Bioresource Technology_Pyrolysis of microalgal biomass in carbon dioxide environment

Cho S.-H., Kim K.-H., Jeon Y.J., Kwon E.E.

(Elsevier Ltd) Bioresource Technology ISSN: 9608524 Vol.193 Issue. Article No. DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2015.06.119

This work mechanistically investigated the influence of CO₂ in the thermo-chemical process of microalgal biomass (Chlorella vulgaris and Microcystis aeruginosa) to achieve a fast virtuous cycle of carbon via recovering energy. This work experimentally justified that the influence of CO₂ in pyrolysis of microalgal biomass could be initiated at temperatures higher than 530°C, which directly led to the enhanced generation of syngas. For example, the concentration of CO from pyrolysis of M. aeruginosa increased up to ~3000% at 670°C in the presence of CO₂. The identified universal influence of CO₂ could be summarized by the expedited thermal cracking of VOCs evolved from microalgal biomass and by the unknown reaction between VOCs and CO₂. This identified effectiveness of CO₂ was different from the Boudouard reaction, which was independently occurred with dehydrogenation. Thus, microalgal biomass could be a candidate for the thermo-chemical process (pyrolysis and gasification). © 2015 Elsevier Ltd.

This work was supported by a National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) Grant funded by the Korean Government ( MSIP ) (No. 2914RA1A004893 ). The second author acknowledged partial support made by a grant from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) (No. 2009-0093848 ).