Date of Award

Spring 5-3-2024

Level of Access Assigned by Author

Open-Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Chemical Engineering

Advisor

Peter van Walsum

Second Committee Member

Sampath Gunukula

Third Committee Member

Clayton Wheeler

Abstract

The conversion of forest bioproducts into biofuel precursors aligns with the United Nations' sustainable development goals of enhancing the world's energy mix and achieving net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases on a global scale by the year 2050. At the core of this study is the chemical pre-conditioning of white pine wood chips to produce hydrolysates rich in hemicelluloses, a vital step towards leveraging the biochemical pathways that convert polysaccharides (cellulose and hemicellulose) and lignin into valuable biofuels. This study explores the use of hydrolysate from the chemical preconditioning system of pine wood chips for microbial oil production. The current study Gon microbial biofuel generation has garnered interest due to the declining availability of fossil fuels. The hydrolysate obtained comprised pentoses, hexoses, and various degradation products, including levulinic acid, furfural, and hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF). These components were evaluated using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). The study unveiled the promising potential of C. curvatus in utilizing C-5 and C-6 sugars derived from lignocellulosic hydrolysates to produce lipids. The detoxified and undetoxified lignocellulosic hydrolysates of CPS were investigated. After five days of growth, C. curvatus achieved a maximum dry cell weight of 7.4 g/L and a lipid yield of 2.0 g/L. The lipid content accounted for 27% of the dry cell weight, indicating that C. curvatus shows potential as an alternative for utilizing hemicellulosic sugars derived from the CPS of lignocellulosic biomass. Predominantly, the fatty acids profile for C. curvatus was analyzed using GC-MS and was identified as oleic, palmitic, and stearic and pentadecanoic, palmitic, and heptadecanoic. This significant discovery paves the way for practical applications in production of bio-oil using the hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) method. This research investigated the hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) process of whole, moist biomass into a high-energy liquid fuel precursor called "biocrude". HTL has great potential as a viable substitute for conventional lipid extraction techniques. We evaluated the yields and bio-oil’s composition. The elemental composition is analyzed using the Elemental analyzer. The bio-oil derived from hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) was discovered to possess a HHV of 26.38, 34.44, and 37.17 MJ/kg-1 at 300oC, 350oC, and 375oC, respectively, which while lower than petroleum crude at 42 MJ kg-1 demonstrates HTL’s potential viability.

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