The Production Of Hydrocarbon Biofuels From Botryococcus Braunii Liquid Over A Ru/CeO₂ Catalyst

Energy is the fundamental basis for the progress of modern society.Along with the rapid development of the world,energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions have become increasingly prominent roles.Among the many renewable energy sources,algae have attracted much attention because of the efficient use of solar energy,the conversion of H2O,CO2 and the ability of inorganic salts into organic matter.Among the algae,Botryococcus braunii as for the production of hydrocarbons has attracted much attention.The hydrocarbon oil from B.braunii are the multi-branched structure.Therefore,Pd/C,Ni/ZSM,Ru/ZSM and Ni/CeO2 catalysts,which are commonly used in the traditional petroleum refining process,exhibit poor activity for the B.braunii liquid catalytic reaction,and the Ru/Ce02 catalyst showed better catalytic performance,and its catalytic conversion rate was close to 90%.However,the crude hydrocarbon oil obtained by simple extraction has more impurities in its composition.Some of these impurity components will have an effect on the reaction.Through GC-MS,organic element analysis and ultraviolet spectroscopy analysis,the impurities are mainly pigment,nitrogen compounds and oxygen compounds.Experiments show that oxygen compounds are rich in C-O bonds,which will be faster reaction than C-C bond reaction,so the reaction of hydrogen pressure is insufficient,and thus inhibit the Ru/Ce02 catalytic reaction.While the pigment due to the larger molecular weight,will lead to a larger molecular weight.Correspondingly,the reaction results can be improved by hydrotreating pretreatment/increasing hydrogen pressure and prolonging the reaction time.In addition to the impurities in the hydrocarbon oil,the Ru/CeO2 catalytic reaction are also affected by the different solvents used in the extraction process of B.braunii.The experimental results show that the catalytic activity of Ru/Ce02 is similar to that of the water phase,and the catalytic activity of Ru/Ce02 increases first and then decreases,while N-ethyln butylamine decreases first and then decreases.The results of these studies can provide some guidance for the study of the preparation of biofuel process.