title: High yield bio-oil production from fast pyrolysis by metabolic controlling of Chlorella protothecoides.
abstract: The use of renewable energy sources is becoming increasingly necessary to mitigate global warming. Recently much research has been focused on identifying suitable biomass species, which can provide high-energy outputs, to replace conventional fossil fuels. This paper reports an approach for increasing the yield of bio-oil production from fast pyrolysis after manipulating the metabolic pathway in microalgae through heterotrophic growth. The yield of bio-oil (57.9%) produced from heterotrophic Chlorella protothecoides cells was 3.4 times higher than from autotrophic cells by fast pyrolysis. The bio-oil was characterized by a much lower oxygen content, with a higher heating value (41 MJ kg(-1)), a lower density (0.92 kg l(-1)), and lower viscosity (0.02 Pas) compared to those of bio-oil from autotrophic cells and wood. These properties are comparable to fossil oil. The research could contribute to the creation of a system to produce energy from microalgae, and also could have great commercial potential for liquid fuel production.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China.
authors.forename: Xiaoling
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Miao
authors.forename: Qingyu
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D002708:Chlorella / Q000378:metabolism*; D002849:Chromatography, Gas; D005579:Fossil Fuels; D009821:Oils / Q000378:metabolism*; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D005579:Fossil Fuels; D009821:Oils