Hydrothermal catalytic production of liquid fuels from algae

Algal biomass is an attractive source for renewable liquid fuels, but a tremendous amount of water accompanies this aquatic biomass feedstock. The energy requirements and costs for dewatering and drying algae are both very high, which militates against a commercially viable large-scale fuel production process employing these steps. Thus, there is a need for processes that convert wet algal biomass directly and therefore operate in the aqueous phase. This presentation will provide recent results from our laboratory related to heterogeneous and homogeneous catalytic processes that can be used to convert wet algal biomass into a crude bio-oil or into crude bio-diesel fuel. We will also provide results on hydrothermal catalytic upgrading of crude algal bio-oil and relevant model compounds. Our focus is on the kinetics and pathways of the catalyzed hydrothermal reactions that convert wet algal biomass to liquid fuels in general and liquid hydrocarbon fuels in particular.