title: Pyrolysis of microalgal biomass in carbon dioxide environment.
abstract: This work mechanistically investigated the influence of CO2 in the thermo-chemical process of microalgal biomass (Chlorella vulgaris and Microcystis aeruginosa) to achieve a fast virtuous cycle of carbon via recovering energy. This work experimentally justified that the influence of CO2 in pyrolysis of microalgal biomass could be initiated at temperatures higher than 530 °C, which directly led to the enhanced generation of syngas. For example, the concentration of CO from pyrolysis of M. aeruginosa increased up to ∼ 3000% at 670 °C in the presence of CO2. The identified universal influence of CO2 could be summarized by the expedited thermal cracking of VOCs evolved from microalgal biomass and by the unknown reaction between VOCs and CO2. This identified effectiveness of CO2 was different from the Boudouard reaction, which was independently occurred with dehydrogenation. Thus, microalgal biomass could be a candidate for the thermo-chemical process (pyrolysis and gasification).
authors.affiliation: Department of Environment and Energy at Sejong University, Seoul 143-747, South Korea.
authors.forename: Seong-Heon
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Hanyang University, Seoul 133-791, South Korea.
authors.forename: Ki-Hyun
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology at Pukyong National University, Pusan 608-737, South Korea.
authors.forename: Young Jae
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Jeon
authors.affiliation: Department of Environment and Energy at Sejong University, Seoul 143-747, South Korea. Electronic address: ekwon74@sejong.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Eilhann E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Kwon
mesh_terms: D018533:Biomass; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000737:chemistry*; D002248:Carbon Monoxide / Q000737:chemistry; D055598:Chemical Phenomena; D048408:Chlorella vulgaris / Q000737:chemistry*; D004777:Environment; D006358:Hot Temperature; D058086:Microalgae / Q000737:chemistry*; D046931:Microcystis / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D002248:Carbon Monoxide
keywords: Carbon dioxide; Microalgae; Pyrolysis; Syngas; Thermo-chemical process