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Novel Power Generation from Microalgae:

Application of Different Gasification Technologies
Muhammad Aziz, Takuya Oda, Takao Kashiwagi
Solutions Research Laboratory
Tokyo Institute of Technology
Tokyo, Japan
maziz@ssr.titech.ac.jp
AbstractEnergy harvesting from microalgae based on
integrated gasification and combined cycle is proposed and
evaluated. Two gasification technologies, i.e. conventional
thermal gasification and supercritical water gasification, are
employed to convert microalgae to syngas. Supercritical water
gasification has advantages on bypassing drying, however the
energy to elevate the water to supercritical condition is relatively
high. Each model was built on the concept of enhanced process
integration technology consisting of exergy recovery and
conventional process integration in order to minimize the total
exergy destruction throughout the whole integrated processes.
High energy efficiency of each integrated processes could be
achieved, 57% for supercritical water gasification and 42% for
conventional gasification.
Keywords-component; microalgae; gasification; supercritical
water; power generation; energy efficiency

I.

INTRODUCTION

Microalgae are unicellular microbes having the capability

to fix CO2 for generating their cell components. Moreover,
microalgae are able to convert effectively the sunlight to
chemical energy through photosynthesis up to 10 times than
terrestrial plants, leading to greater rates of areal productivity
and higher growing rate [1, 2]. In addition, microalgae are very
potential for sustainable growth due to their capability to
extract both macro and micro nutrients included in the flue gas
and wastewater coming out from industries [3].
Relating to the CO2 absorption, microalgae serve
combination of CO2 fixation and its conversion of the gas
components towards energy. Hence, energy harvesting from
microalgae can be considered as carbon neutral. This biological
sequestration is considered as the efficient strategy reducing
the greenhouse gases. Co-locating of microalgae cultivation
site to a near CO2 emitting industrial points, such as power
plant, is a believed as a correct strategy to grow effectively the
microalgae. According to previous research, microalgae can be
grown effectively under condition with high concentration of
CO2, up to 15% of concentration [4]. In addition, microalgae
which are cultivated in high CO2 concentration will have a
higher total lipids contents leading to higher energy density and
conversion ratio to biofuel. The energy density of microalgae
which are cultivated under appropriate conditions is ranging

from 19 to 25 GJ t-1. This energy density is almost similar to

low rank coal [5].
Energy harvesting from microalgae can be conducted
through thermochemical and biochemical ways. Generally,
thermochemical conversion, including pyrolysis, combustion
and gasification, can reach higher conversion rate and produce
more complete conversion products than biochemical
conversion. Among the available technologies for energy
harvesting of biomass, recently, an integrated gasification and
combined cycle (IGCC) got a higher attention because of its
high power generation efficiency [6]. In addition, gasification
of microalgae can be conducted in two routes: thermal
conventional gasification and supercritical water gasification
(SCWG). Each of gasification technology has its own
characteristics, advantages and disadvantages.
This study proposes, evaluates and compares the
application of each gasification technology within IGCC for
power generation in term of total power generation efficiency.
Basically, both proposed processes are developed by
employing the enhanced process integration (EPI) technology
involving exergy recovery and process integration.
II.

GASIFICATION OF MICROALGAE

Gasification is a conversion technology employing a

reaction medium (air etc.) having O2 concentration under
stoichiometric condition which is needed for combustion. The
existence of O2 leads to partial combustion, hence, maintain
the reaction in high temperature. This will cause biomass
feedstock to decompose through pyrolysis reaction into lighter
compounds including H2, CH4, CO and CO2.
A. Conventional Gasification
The thermal efficiency of conventional gasification
decreases significantly following the moisture content of the
feedstock due to large amount of energy required for drying of
the feedstock [7]. Hence, the harvested microalgae need be
dried to low moisture content to keep their conversion to be
efficient and stable. As an example, the feedstock requires to
be dried to moisture content of about 10 wt% on wet basis (wb)
to obtain the gasification temperature of 900 C in conventional
gasification process. The fresh harvested microalgae generally

978-1-4799-9982-8/15/$31.00 2015 IEEE

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have high moisture content which is ranging from 70 to 90

wt% wb leading to high energy consumption for drying.
Main reactions occur during gasification include water-gas,
methanation, shift, and Boudouard reactions [8]. Water-gas
reaction is the basic reaction of carbon materials with the
superheated steam under high temperature condition to produce
combustible gases including hydrogen and carbon monoxide.
Furthermore, char and tar (higher hydrocarbons) are also
produced which represents the limit of gasification efficiency.
Tar and char are difficult to gasify and separate, hence, requires
further gas treatment before its utilization.
B. Supercritical Water Gasification
SCWG is a thermochemical conversion technology
utilizing the characteristics of supercritical water to convert the
biomass into light gas compounds. The critical point means
both pressure and temperature at which the substance exists as
liquid and gas in equilibrium condition. In supercritical region,
high pressure maintains the fluid density close of its liquid,
increasing its thermal conductivity. In addition, high
temperature leads to the viscosity closes to that observed in
gases resulting in the increase of the diffusion rates [9]. Under
supercritical condition, water acts like non-polar solvent, thus
the reaction occurs in a single homogeneous phase of fluid.
It was observed that SCWG of biomass results in high
gasification efficiency and fast chemical reaction [10]. In
addition, the formation of char and tar can be minimized and
almost complete conversion can be obtained [11]. Gasification
of microalgae with SCWG is believed to be beneficial as
microalgae can dissolve well in the water. In addition, SCWG
produces cleaner syngas almost without NOx and SOx.
Although no latent heat required to create supercritical
water, the energy to elevate the water to reach supercritical
condition (pressure and temperature are higher than 22.1 MPa
and 374 C, respectively) is relatively large. It influences
significantly the total energy efficiency although SCWG has
higher gasification efficiency. Hence, further technological
improvement to answer this issue is required.

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III.

PROPOSED INTEGRATED PROCESSES

The utilization of microalgae usually faces some difficult

tasks including both technological and economic issues. Power
generation through both gasification technologies requires high
energy consumption leading to decrease in total energy
efficiency. Hence, new technology which can lead to high total
energy efficiency is required. In this study, to answer this
problem, EPI is adopted to model the integrated process of
IGCC employing each gasification technology.
The concept of EPI consists of two main technologies:
exergy recovery and process integration [12]. The former
focuses in each process which is recirculating effectively the
energy/heat which is involved in a single process. This idea is
different with the conventional heat recovery which is available
today. In the exergy recovery, the quality of the recirculated
energy/heat is maintained to be the same with that is required
for the process to occur. Therefore, the recovered energy/heat
can be utilized as the energy/heat source for the subsequent
process. As the result, the energy/heat involved in the process
can be recovered effectively and the total energy consumption
can be reduced significantly. This is totally different with the
idea of conventional heat recovery developed based on heat
cascade utilization technology which only resulted in a smaller
amount of recovered energy/heat. Exergy recovery has been
evaluated and applied in various energy-related research
including biomass and coal [13-15].
The idea of exergy recovery can be achieved through
performance of exergy elevation and heat pairing. Initially, the
exergy rate of the cold stream (process stream) is elevated
through compression or heat pump before performing a heat
exchange between the hot stream (exergy-elevated stream) and
cold stream. In addition, to obtain an optimum and balanced
heat, heat pairing for the equal amount and type of heat among
streams is conducted. This heat pairing is performed for each
same type of heat covering sensible, latent, endothermic, and
exothermic heats. However, due to some causes including both
chemical and physical changes, the amount of available heat
for the same type of heat can be different. It causes any
inequality in the amount of heat. This imbalanced amount of

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of proposed integrated processes employing conventional gasification

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heat could raise any ineffective heat recovery and finally leads
to higher exergy destruction.
Furthermore, although the process has been optimized by
employing the energy (heat) circulation, some energy losses
still exist because of some limitations including heat exchanger
and heat loss. Hence, the idea of process integration is adopted
to utilize the unrecoverable energy (heat) in a certain process.
In this case, the unrecovered energy (heat) from one process is
utilized to other processes. Therefore, the total exergy
destruction in the whole processes can be minimized.
Basically, all the materials involved in proposed processes
are circulated leading to power generation with minimum CO2
emission. The exhausted gas from combined cycle will be
recycled back to the cultivation due to its chemical components
which are useful as nutrients for microalgae to grow.
A. IGCC with Conventional Gasification
In IGCC with conventional gasification, the proposed
integrated-processes include three main subsequent processes:
drying, gasification and combined cycle. The schematic
process diagram of the proposed processes employing
conventional thermal gasification is shown in Fig. 1. Generally,
the harvested microalgae are dried to low moisture content to
increase their calorific value. The dried and hot microalgae
flow to the gasifier subsequently to be converted
thermochemically into synthetic gases (syngas). Next, the
produced syngas is used as fuel for combustion in combined
cycle process to rotate the gas and steam turbines. A small part
of the generated electricity is consumed in drying and
gasification, while the large part of produced electricity will be
sent to the grid.
In drying stage, the harvested microalgae are fed initially to
pretreatment process to achieve a uniform size and shape
improving their dynamicity, transport, and heat transfer during
drying. Next, microalgae are preheated to certain temperature
in two preheaters utilizing the heat of hot flue gas coming from
power generation stage and condensed water from compressed
steam, respectively. The preheated microalgae are fed to the
main dryer where water evaporation occurs. Rotary dryer with
internal steam tube is used as the dryer. The exhausted steam
from dryer is split into the compressed steam and recirculated

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steam. The amount of the compressed steam equals to the

evaporated water from microalgae during drying and it is
compressed by compressor to elevate its exergy rate changing
its physical properties. This compressed steam is utilized as the
main heat source for the subsequent drying. Hence, the
compression ratio depends strongly to the performance of heat
exchange including both dryer and preheater. On the other
hand, the recirculated water, which is fixed in its amount, is
recirculated back to the dryer to improve the dynamicity of
microalgae and heat transfer inside the dryer.
The hot dried-microalgae flowing out from dryer are fed
directly to the gasifier for conversion. For the gasifier, fluidized
bed is employed due to its higher carbon conversion efficiency
and conversion rate [16]. The produced syngas flows to the
treatment stage to achieve a clean syngas. Clean syngas is used
as fuel in combustor producing high temperature and pressure
hot gas. It is important to note that this hot gas exergetically
has highest exergy rate among heat involved in the integrated
processes. Therefore, hot gas is initially utilized to superheat
the exhausted syngas and gas from gasifier facilitating a
possibility for self-heat exchange. As the temperature and
pressure of the hot flue gas from superheater are still high, it is
utilized to rotate the gas turbine for power generation. In
addition, the heat of hot flue gas from gas turbine is then
recuperated in heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) to
produce steam rotating the steam turbine.
B. IGCC with Supercritical Water Gasification
Although SCWG can bypass drying, energy input required
to achieve the designated gasification temperature and
pressure is also large. Therefore, exergy recovery for SCWG
and its integration with power generation based on EPI
technology is introduced in this study in order to improve the
total energy efficiency. Fig. 2 shows the schematic process
diagram of the proposed integrated process employing SCWG.
The harvested microalgae are fed to the gasifier in a slurry
form by high pressure pump and preheated to certain
temperature. In gasifier, microalgae are converted into syngas
under supercritical condition. The exhausted mixture of
syngas and steam from gasifier is then superheated in
superheater to increase its exergy rate. In this case, the exergy
elevation is performed through heat exchange utilizing higher

Figure 2. Schematic process diagram of proposed integrated process employing SCWG

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temperature of heat source which is the flue gas from the gas
turbine. The purpose of this exergy elevation is to realize a
self-heat exchange during gasification. Therefore, a fluidized
bed with heat exchanger immersed inside is adopted to
facilitate this self-heat exchange. Fluidized bed type SCWG
reactor is employed as gasifier due to its advantages on
avoiding reactor plugging, high gasification efficiency and
applicability to continuous feeding [17]. Subsequently, the
mixture of syngas and steam flows to preheaters to preheat
both water and microalgae before it is condensed to separate
the produced syngas from water in the separator.
The produced syngas is used as fuel and combusted under
high pressure condition producing an effective torque rotating
the gas turbine. In addition, the flue gas exhausted from gas
turbine is used as heat source for superheating before its
remaining heat is recovered in HRSG for steam generation
required for steam turbine.
IV.

PROCESS EVALUATION AND DISCUSSION

To calculate the energy efficiency of each proposed process,

process modeling and calculation are performed using a steadystate process simulator SimSci Pro/II (Schneider Electric
Software,
LLC.).
As
sample,
green
microalgae
Nannochloropsis sp., is used due to its advantages on high lipid
content and high affinity to water leading to high gasification
efficiency. Table 1 shows the properties of Nannochloropsis sp.
covering both proximate and ultimate analyses. Some
assumptions are made during the calculation including: (i) a
fluidized bed consists of a conversion reactor and a heat
exchanger, (ii) the heat exchange inside fluidized bed and other
heat exchanger are in co-current and counter current mode,
respectively, (iii) the minimum temperature approach in all
heat exchangers is 10 C, (iv) the flow rate and moisture
content of the wet Nannochloropsis sp. are 1,000 t h1 and 90
wt% wb, respectively, (v) the ambient temperature and
pressure are 25 C and 101.33 kPa, (vi) the polytrophic
efficiency of both compressor and blower is 87%, (vii) there is
no heat loss from the system.
Tables 2 and 3 show the detailed gasification conditions for
conventional gasification and SCWG, respectively. Both
integrated processes are adopting fluidized bed gasifier and the
fluidization velocity is considered as important parameter
which can influence the total energy efficiency. Hence, in this
study fluidization velocity is considered as the evaluated
parameter. In case of system with conventional gasification, as
bubbling mode is preferred, fluidization velocities of 3, 4 and 5
Umf are evaluated. On the other hand, in case of system with
SCWG, for fluidization velocities of 1, 2, 3, and 4 Umf are
evaluated. To improve the fluidization performance, fluidizing
particles are loaded inside the fluidized bed. In addition, to
enhance the gasification conversion, each gasification method
utilizes each different catalyst which is loaded in the gasifier
together with the fluidizing particles. The composition of
produced syngas for each conventional thermal gasification
and SCWG are referring to the works of Duman et al. [18] and
Guan et al. [19]. Table 4 shows the combined cycle conditions
used in both integrated processes.

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PROPERTIES OF NANNOCHLOROPSIS SP.

TABLE I.

Properties
Proximate analysis (wt.% db)
Ash
Protein
Lipid
Carbohydrate
Ultimate analysis (wt.% db)
Carbon
Hydrogen
Nitrogen
Sulfur
Oxygen
Calorific value (MJ kg-1)
TABLE II.

Value
10
62
18
9
43.3
6.0
6.4
0.5
25.1
18.5

CONDITIONS OF CONVENTIONAL GASIFICATION.

Properties
Temperature (C)
Syngas composition (m3 kg-dry algae-1)
H2
CO
CH4
CO2
Fluidizing and catalyst particle
Material
Mean diameter (mm)
Density (kg m-3)
Surface area (m2 g-1)
Sphericity (-)
Voidage at min. fluidization (-)
TABLE III.

0.413
0.005
0.073
0.278
Fe2O3-90% CeO2
0.367
1,000
22
0.85
0.45

CONDITIONS OF SCWG.

Properties
Gasification products (dry mol%)
CO
C2H6 and C3H8
CH4
CO2
H2
Gasification conditions
Catalyst (-)
Catalyst to algae weight ratio (-)
SCWG pressure (MPa)
SCWG temperature (C)
Carbon conversion efficiency (%)
Alumina particles diameter (mm)
TABLE IV.

Value
700

Value
3.1
4.9
18.1
27.8
46.1
Ru/TiO2
2
25
700
100
0.3

CONDITIONS OF COMBINED CYCLE.

Parameters
Combustor and Gas turbine
Compressor outlet pressure (MPa)
Compressor polytrophic efficiency (%)
Pressure drop inside combustor (%)
Turbine inlet temperature (C)
Turbine polytrophic efficiency (%)
Air to fuel ratio (-)
HRSG and Steam turbine
HRSG outlet pressure (MPa)
Temperature approach inside HRSG (C)
Pressure drop inside HRSG (%)
Turbine polytrophic efficiency (%)
Minimum turbine outlet vapor quality (%)

Value
2
87
2
1,300
90
10
10
10
1
90
90

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The pressure drop across the bed following the fluidization,

'p, is calculated using the modified Ergun equation as follows:
'p
H

150

1  H 2 u
H

Pg U g

dp 

 1.75

1 H

Ug U g 2
Mp dp

(1)

where, H, U, U, H, P, M, and d are bed height, velocity, density,

fraction, dynamic viscosity, particle sphericity, and diameter,
respectively.
V.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Figs. 3 and 4 show the relationship among total generated

power, total generation efficiency and gasification fluidization
velocity for the proposed integrated-system with conventional
gasification and SCWG, respectively. Total generated power is
the net generated electricity from the system including the
electricity consumed internally by compressors, blowers and
pumps. In addition, total generation efficiency is calculated as
the ratio of total generated power to LHV of wet microalgae.

velocity. As the result, the energy which is available to

generate steam in HRSG for steam turbine decreases
accordingly. The application of EPI in power generation from
microalgae is considered to be able to increase the future
utilization of microalgae as very potential biomass resource.
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[1]
[2]
[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

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[10]

Figure 3. Calculation results of proposed integrated-processes employing

conventional gasification

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]
Figure 4. Calculation results of proposed integrated-processes employing
SCWG

Generally, both generated electricity and generation

efficiency are higher in case of lower fluidization velocity.
Furthermore, the total power generation efficiency is
considered high. Numerically, the highest total generation
efficiencies for both systems with conventional gasification
and SCWG are 42% and 57%, correspondingly. The heat
consumed to elevate the temperature of syngas and steam
during superheating increases due to increase of fluidization

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