Supercritical water gasification (SCWG) as a potential tool for the valorization of phycoremediation-derived waste algal biomass for biofuel generation
Journal
Journal of Hazardous Materials
Journal Volume
418
Date Issued
2021
Author(s)
Abstract
Phycoremediation is an emerging technology, where algae-based processes were used to effectively remove nutrients, organic wastes, and toxic heavy metals from the polluted environment. The waste algal biomass obtained after phycoremediation, which may contain residual hazardous materials, could still be used as feedstock to produce biofuels/bioenergy preferably through thermochemical conversion technology. This review proposes a synergistic approach by utilizing the phycoremediation-derived algal biomass (PCDA) as feedstock for efficient hazardous waste treatment and clean energy generation via supercritical water gasification (SCWG). The review provides an in-depth study of catalytic, non-catalytic, and continuous SCWG of algal biomass, aiming to lay out the foundations for future study. In addition, the concepts of heat integration as well as water, nutrient, and CO2 recycling were introduced for a sustainable algae-to-biofuel process, which significantly enhances the overall energy and material efficiency of SCWG. The production of biofuel from algal biomass via other advanced gasification technologies, such as integration with other thermochemical conversion techniques, co-gasification, chemical looping gasification (CLG), and integrated gasification and combined cycle (IGCC) were also discussed. Furthermore, the discussion of kinetics and thermodynamics models, as well as life cycle and techno-economic assessments, appear to provide insights for future commercial applications. ? 2021 Elsevier B.V.
Subjects
Algae
Biofuel and bioenergy
Gasification
Phycoremediation
Supercritical water gasification
Thermochemical conversion
Biofuels
Biomass
Feedstocks
Hazards
Heavy metals
Life cycle
Nutrients
Pyrolysis
Thermodynamics
Waste treatment
Water
Water recycling
Algal biomass
Emerging technologies
Organic wastes
Potential tool
Thermochemical Conversion
Toxic heavy metals
Valorisation
alkali
biofuel
carbon dioxide
water
biomass
bioremediation
fungus
hazardous waste
thermodynamics
waste technology
water treatment
alga
Article
biofuel production
biomass valorization
catalyst
continuous process
economic evaluation
gasification
green chemistry
kinetics
life cycle assessment
microbial biomass
nonhuman
phycoremediation
recycling
supercritical water gasification
temperature
waste valorization
water residence time
catalysis
plant
wastewater
Catalysis
Plants
Waste Water
Type
journal article