水熱液化(hydrothermal liquefaction, HTL)とは, バイオマス燃料を高温高圧下で処理しバイオオイルを抽出する方法です. HTL後に得られるバイオオイルには窒素が多く含まれ, この窒素はオイル生成プロセスの非効率化をもたらします.
伏見研究室は, 固体炭素酸および塩化水素(HCl)触媒の存在下で微細藻類の2段階HTLを行う場合, バイオオイルの収量と窒素の回収率を高める最適な実験条件と触媒の影響を調査しました.
微細藻類は一般に脂質を多く含み, 成長率が高く, 栽培が食糧生産と競合しないため, 化石燃料の代替となりうる微細藻類由来のバイオオイルを効率よく抽出する方法の提案として期待されます.
Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is a method of extracting bio-oil from biomass by processing them under high temperature and pressure. The bio-oil extracted after HTL contains a lot of nitrogen, which makes the oil production process inefficient.
Fushimi research group has studied a two-stage HTL process in the presence of carbon solid acid or HCL catalyst and investigate optimal experimental conditions and the effect of catalysts. Bio-oil derived from microalgae could be an alternative to fossil fuels since microalgae contain a lot of lipids, their growth rate is high, and their cultivation does not compete with food production. Therefore, this research is expected to be an efficient way to extract bio-oil derived from microalgae.
文責: N. S. 大学院生
【用語】微細藻類：光合成をおこなう体長10 μm程度の単細胞生物. 植物プランクトン. Microalgae = photosynthetic unicellular organism with a body size of about 10 µm phytoplankton.