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Reduction of inorganics from macroalgae Laminaria digitata and spent mushroom compost (SMC) by acid leaching and selective hydrothermal liquefaction

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Abstract

Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a promising route for producing bio-crude from various biomass feedstocks. However, high content of inorganic constituents in biomass like macroalgae Laminaria digitata and spent mushroom compost (SMC) affect the conversion process and the resulting fuel products. This research studied the effects of different acid leaching treatments on such feedstocks, subsequent HTL, and bio-crude properties. Leaching treatments were performed using five different agents: deionized water, acetic acid, citric acid, sulfuric acid, and hydrochloric acid. Performance of leaching was evaluated by analyzing both leached biomass and HTL products by elemental analysis, ash content, inductively coupled plasma (ICP) analysis, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Catalytic and non-catalytic HTL of both feedstocks before and after treatment were performed in a 10-mL microreactor at 400 °C with a holding time of 15 min and pressures of 27–30 MPa. For macroalgae, sulfuric acid and hydrochloric acid were found the most effective in reducing the ash content from 30.42 to 20.45 and 20.87%, respectively, followed by acetic and citric acid treatment that could reduce the ash content to 21.5 and 22.15%, respectively. Similarly for SMC, citric acid and acetic acid were found the most effective in reducing the ash content from 50.34 to 37.04 and 39.94%, respectively. Citric acid did not show significant leaching of organic components such as carbohydrates and proteins and represented a less toxic and hazardous option for the leaching. The results from HTL of untreated and citric acid-treated biomass showed that the acid leaching resulted in an increase in bio-crude yields from 20.7 to 29.2% (dry ash-free basis) for macroalgae and from 22.9 to 25.1% for SMC.

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Acknowledgements

This work is part of C3BO (Center for BioOil) at the Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University. The research was financially supported by a grant from the Innovation Fund Denmark Grant No 1305-00030B. The authors are grateful to Patrick Biller and Maika Klemmer from the Department of Chemistry, Arhus University, for their support with some of the analysis. One of the authors, Chunbao (Charles) Xu, would also like to acknowledge the VELUX Visiting Professor Programme.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    Saqib Sohail Toor, Iulia M. Sintamarean & Lasse A. Rosendahl

  2. Faculty of Chemical Technology, Kaunas University of Technology, Kaunas, Lithuania

    Lukas Jasiunas

  3. Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Western University, London, ON, Canada

    Chunbao (Charles) Xu

  4. Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    Donghong Yu

  5. Department of Civil Engineering, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark

    Asbjørn H. Nielsen

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  1. Saqib Sohail Toor
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  2. Lukas Jasiunas
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  3. Chunbao (Charles) Xu
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  7. Lasse A. Rosendahl
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Correspondence to Saqib Sohail Toor.

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Toor, S.S., Jasiunas, L., Xu, C.(. et al. Reduction of inorganics from macroalgae Laminaria digitata and spent mushroom compost (SMC) by acid leaching and selective hydrothermal liquefaction. Biomass Conv. Bioref. 8, 369–377 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-017-0290-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-017-0290-6

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