Hydrogen-rich energy recovery from microalgae (lipid-extracted) via steam catalytic gasification

Identifying and tackling indispensable developments in microalgae-based bio-economy should be a priority to unravel the contentious water-food-energy-environment nexus that algae inhabit. This research investigated the catalytic and non-catalytic steam gasification of two types of lipid-extracted microalgae biomasses, Chlorella vulgaris and Spirulina platensis in a thermogravimetric analyzer coupled with online mass spectrometry. A hybrid-functional mixture consisting of CaO naturally derived from waste eggshell as catalyst and sorbent, Ni as catalyst and Y2O3 as support was employed during the gasification that mainly generated H-2, CO and CO2. The varied CaO loading (10 to 50 wt%) showed an evident effect on the overall gasification of lipid-extracted microalgae biomass, indicating an optimal CaO loading of 40 wt% for Ni-CaO-Y2O3 mixed materials which enabled 400.81 and 324.93 mL g(-1) of H-2 yield, with maximum purity of up to 53.25 and 41.82 vol% in gaseous product for Chlorella vulgaris and Spirulina microalgae residues, respectively. The addition of Ni, Y2O3 in mixed form (Ni-CaO, Ni-CaO-Y2O3, CaO-Y2O3 and Ni-Y2O3) drastically enhanced H-2 yield and its purity. Ni-CaO produced the maximum H-2 yield and purity of 497.29 and 435 mL g(-1), and 63.15 and 45.78 vol% for Chlorella vulgaris and Spirulina platensis, respectively.