From macroalgae to liquid fuel viawaste-water remediation, hydrothermal upgrading, carbon dioxide hydrogenation and hydrotreating

This article showcases a proof-of-concept in the production of high quality renewable biofuel from algae. Here, we introduce a path combining a number of approaches that, when integrated as a whole, create a process that takes algae grown in waste-water through to a liquid fuel containing fractions ready for blending with regular gasoline, jet fuel and diesel. With the overarching goal of reducing the nitrogen content invariably associated with whole algal biomass, we apply a number of approaches including (i) nutrient starvation to reduce the internal nitrogen of the freshwater alga Oedogonium(ii) continuous co-solvent (10 wt% n-heptane) hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) to produce a non-polar biocrude containing