{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/50657"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/50657","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Characterization of biofuel from diatoms via hydrothermal liquefaction","abstract":"Previous studies of hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) converting low lipid content microalgae (i.e., Chlorella pyrenoidosa and Spirulina platensis) have shown potential to utilize low lipid microalgae to produce bio-crude oil. Diatoms are a major group of microalgae in water bodies with a high growth rate and that contribute about 20% of global primary production. Their unique frustule (silica cell wall) results in a high ash content (39% dry weight). This character makes the bio crude oil absorbed in solid product after hydrothermal liquefaction, rather than viscous liquid product as we have seen from C. pyrenoidosa and S. platensis. Most of the organic matter in the diatom biomass was converted into alkanes, fatty acyls, and small fractions of undesirable nitrogen-containing compounds, such as pyrazines, according to GC-MS analysis. The inorganic frustules remained in the solid residue, unchanged after the hydrothermal process, with small amounts of organic matter attached, as revealed by SEM observation and FT-IR characterization. The higher alkane content indicated competitive quality of bio crude oil from diatoms to those from C. pyrenoidosa and S. platensis. However, challenges arise along with the high amount of solid residue, which may cause extra difficulty for product separation and reactor design.","abstract_html":"Previous studies of hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) converting low lipid content microalgae (i.e., Chlorella pyrenoidosa and Spirulina platensis) have shown potential to utilize low lipid microalgae to produce bio-crude oil. Diatoms are a major group of microalgae in water bodies with a high growth rate and that contribute about 20% of global primary production. Their unique frustule (silica cell wall) results in a high ash content (39% dry weight). This character makes the bio crude oil absorbed in solid product after hydrothermal liquefaction, rather than viscous liquid product as we have seen from C. pyrenoidosa and S. platensis. Most of the organic matter in the diatom biomass was converted into alkanes, fatty acyls, and small fractions of undesirable nitrogen-containing compounds, such as pyrazines, according to GC-MS analysis. The inorganic frustules remained in the solid residue, unchanged after the hydrothermal process, with small amounts of organic matter attached, as revealed by SEM observation and FT-IR characterization. The higher alkane content indicated competitive quality of bio crude oil from diatoms to those from C. pyrenoidosa and S. platensis. However, challenges arise along with the high amount of solid residue, which may cause extra difficulty for product separation and reactor design.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Zhang, Peng"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"M.S.","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Agricultural & Biological Engr","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Zhang, Yuanhui"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2014,"date_issued":"2014-09-16T17:24:57Z","date_published":"2014-09-16T17:24:57Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:40Z","subjects":["Bio-crude oil","Hydrothermal","Liquefaction","microalgae","diatoms","frustule"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2014 Peng Zhang"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/50657","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Zhang, Yuanhui"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Zhang, Peng"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2014-09-16T17:24:57Z","2014-08","2014-09-16"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Agricultural & Biological Engr"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M.S."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Bio-crude oil","Hydrothermal","Liquefaction","microalgae","diatoms","frustule"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2014 Peng Zhang"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/50657"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Previous studies of hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) converting low lipid content microalgae (i.e., Chlorella pyrenoidosa and Spirulina platensis) have shown potential to utilize low lipid microalgae to produce bio-crude oil. Diatoms are a major group of microalgae in water bodies with a high growth rate and that contribute about 20% of global primary production. Their unique frustule (silica cell wall) results in a high ash content (39% dry weight). This character makes the bio crude oil absorbed in solid product after hydrothermal liquefaction, rather than viscous liquid product as we have seen from C. pyrenoidosa and S. platensis. Most of the organic matter in the diatom biomass was converted into alkanes, fatty acyls, and small fractions of undesirable nitrogen-containing compounds, such as pyrazines, according to GC-MS analysis. The inorganic frustules remained in the solid residue, unchanged after the hydrothermal process, with small amounts of organic matter attached, as revealed by SEM observation and FT-IR characterization. The higher alkane content indicated competitive quality of bio crude oil from diatoms to those from C. pyrenoidosa and S. platensis. However, challenges arise along with the high amount of solid residue, which may cause extra difficulty for product separation and reactor design.","Item withdrawn by Laura Spradlin (lspradl2@illinois.edu) on 2014-07-23T17:54:58Z Item was in collections: University of Illinois Theses & Dissertations (ID: 1) No. of bitstreams: 2 Zhang_Peng_thesis final.docx: 9837611 bytes, checksum: ed17f761d2f66c3a3e211dc1c8ef23f3 (MD5) Zhang_Peng.pdf: 2514450 bytes, checksum: c11831b9959393dacc1ed7fe80474bf8 (MD5)","Made available in DSpace on 2014-09-16T17:24:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3 Peng_Zhang.pdf: 2514450 bytes, checksum: c11831b9959393dacc1ed7fe80474bf8 (MD5) Zhang_Peng_thesis final.docx: 9837611 bytes, checksum: ed17f761d2f66c3a3e211dc1c8ef23f3 (MD5) license.txt: 4060 bytes, checksum: 754acb8750b361ee6821dbd04d8768c3 (MD5)"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Characterization of biofuel from diatoms via hydrothermal liquefaction"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Zhang, Yuanhui"],"dc:creator":["Zhang, Peng"],"dc:date":["2014-09-16T17:24:57Z","2014-08","2014-09-16"],"dc:description":["Previous studies of hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) converting low lipid content microalgae (i.e., Chlorella pyrenoidosa and Spirulina platensis) have shown potential to utilize low lipid microalgae to produce bio-crude oil. Diatoms are a major group of microalgae in water bodies with a high growth rate and that contribute about 20% of global primary production. Their unique frustule (silica cell wall) results in a high ash content (39% dry weight). This character makes the bio crude oil absorbed in solid product after hydrothermal liquefaction, rather than viscous liquid product as we have seen from C. pyrenoidosa and S. platensis. Most of the organic matter in the diatom biomass was converted into alkanes, fatty acyls, and small fractions of undesirable nitrogen-containing compounds, such as pyrazines, according to GC-MS analysis. The inorganic frustules remained in the solid residue, unchanged after the hydrothermal process, with small amounts of organic matter attached, as revealed by SEM observation and FT-IR characterization. The higher alkane content indicated competitive quality of bio crude oil from diatoms to those from C. pyrenoidosa and S. platensis. However, challenges arise along with the high amount of solid residue, which may cause extra difficulty for product separation and reactor design.","Item withdrawn by Laura Spradlin (lspradl2@illinois.edu) on 2014-07-23T17:54:58Z Item was in collections: University of Illinois Theses & Dissertations (ID: 1) No. of bitstreams: 2 Zhang_Peng_thesis final.docx: 9837611 bytes, checksum: ed17f761d2f66c3a3e211dc1c8ef23f3 (MD5) Zhang_Peng.pdf: 2514450 bytes, checksum: c11831b9959393dacc1ed7fe80474bf8 (MD5)","Made available in DSpace on 2014-09-16T17:24:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3 Peng_Zhang.pdf: 2514450 bytes, checksum: c11831b9959393dacc1ed7fe80474bf8 (MD5) Zhang_Peng_thesis final.docx: 9837611 bytes, checksum: ed17f761d2f66c3a3e211dc1c8ef23f3 (MD5) license.txt: 4060 bytes, checksum: 754acb8750b361ee6821dbd04d8768c3 (MD5)"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/50657"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2014 Peng Zhang"],"dc:subject":["Bio-crude oil","Hydrothermal","Liquefaction","microalgae","diatoms","frustule"],"dc:title":["Characterization of biofuel from diatoms via hydrothermal liquefaction"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Agricultural & Biological Engr"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["M.S."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:40Z"}