Issue 26, 2012
From the journal:

RSC Advances

Recent developments in the production of liquid fuelsvia catalytic conversion of microalgae: experiments and simulations

Fan Shi,*ab   Ping Wang,a   Yuhua Duan,*a   Dirk Linka  and  Bryan Morrealea  

* Corresponding authors

a National Energy Technology Laboratory, United States Department of Energy, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15236, USA
E-mail: Yuhua.duan@netl.doe.gov
Fax: +1-412-386-5920
Tel: +1-412-386-5771

b URS Corporation, South Park, Pennsylvania 15219, USA
E-mail: Fan.shi@netl.doe.gov
Fax: +1-412-386-4542
Tel: +1-412-386-7350

Abstract

Due to continuing high demand, depletion of non-renewable resources and increasing concerns about climate change, the use of fossil fuel-derived transportation fuels faces relentless challenges both from a world markets and an environmental perspective. The production of renewable transportation fuel from microalgae continues to attract much attention because of its potential for fast growth rates, high oil content, ability to grow in unconventional scenarios, and inherent carbon neutrality. Moreover, the use of microalgae would minimize “food versus fuel” concerns associated with several biomass strategies, as microalgae do not compete with food crops in the food chain. This paper reviews the progress of recent research on the production of transportation fuels via homogeneous and heterogeneous catalytic conversions of microalgae. This review also describes the development of tools that may allow for a more fundamental understanding of catalyst selection and conversion processes using computational modelling. The catalytic conversion reaction pathways that have been investigated are fully discussed based on both experimental and theoretical approaches. Finally, this work makes several projections for the potential of various thermocatalytic pathways to produce alternative transportation fuels from algae, and identifies key areas where the authors feel that computational modelling should be directed to elucidate key information to optimize the process.

Graphical abstract: Recent developments in the production of liquid fuels via catalytic conversion of microalgae: experiments and simulations

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/C2RA21594B
Article type
Review Article
Submitted
27 Jul 2012
Accepted
31 Jul 2012
First published
02 Aug 2012

RSC Adv., 2012,2, 9727-9747

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Recent developments in the production of liquid fuels via catalytic conversion of microalgae: experiments and simulations

F. Shi, P. Wang, Y. Duan, D. Link and B. Morreale, RSC Adv., 2012, 2, 9727 DOI: 10.1039/C2RA21594B

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