Thermocatalytic Pyrolysis of Exhausted Arthrospira platensis Biomass after Protein or Lipid Recovery

Microalgae and cyanobacteria are unicellular microorganism that contain high-added-value compounds. To make their extraction economically feasible, the biorefinery concept is the only solution. In this study, the residues resulting from lipid or protein extraction from Arthrospira platensis biomass were valorized by catalytic pyrolysis using ZSM5 zeolite or amorphous silica–alumina as catalyst. The reaction was performed in a quartz reactor, and the catalysts were placed in a fixed bed, to force the reaction gases to pass through it. The reaction products were analyzed by FTIR and GC–MS analyses. The reaction gases and liquids obtained from the extraction residues had higher hydrocarbon contents compared with the untreated biomass. Moreover, the pyrolysis of biomass after protein extraction led to fractions with lower nitrogenated component contents, while that after lipid extraction to fractions with lower oxygenated component contents. This study showed that the pyrolysis process could be used to valorize the microalgae extraction residues, aiming to make biofuels production and extraction of high-added-value products more economically feasible.

Emission Reduction in SI Engines by using metal doped Cu- ZSM5 and Ce.Cu- ZSM5 zeolite as Catalysts

In recent investigations, it has been found that ZSM5 like catalysts were preferred nor the NOx reduction in the lean burn operating engines. The present experiment is focused on the spark ignition engine emission reduction using metal doped Cu-ZSM5 and Ce.Cu-ZSM zeolite based catalyst. Copper and cerium site was found very much active for the fast reduction of Nitrogen Oxides (NOx), hydrocarbon (HC) and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions. The engine used for the testing is a twin-cylinder petrol fuelled engine coupled with an eddy current dynamometer. The emissions from the engine were measured by AVL DI-gas analyzer. Initially, the emission reading was measured from the commercial catalytic converter that was fitted near to the exhaust and then the emissions were measured from using the Cu-ZSM5 and Ce.Cu-ZSM5 zeolite based catalytic converters. The results indicate that the zeolite based catalysts reduces the exhaust emission more than that of the commercial catalytic convertor.