Bijoy Biswas

Title : Catalytic hydrothermal liquefaction of macroalgae for the production of higher ester functional compounds

Abstract:

Liquefaction of biomass with proper solvents is a process that can prospectively be integrated with optimized conditions to produce fuel and valuable chemicals. Thus, the solvent might have an effect on the yield and composition of the crude bio-oil and other fractions produced from hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL).  HTL of macroalgae using ethanol and methanol as the solvent produced ester compounds. However catalysts can be enhanced the ester compounds and several researches using the different catalysts for the production of ester compounds. While homogenous base catalytic HTL of macroalgae has been reported by several researchers, the use of solid base catalyst as a more economically viable choice has not been examined. The production of selective functional group compounds or quality bio-oil would call for further catalytic screening of algal biomass. In this study, higher selective ester compounds were produced by using various solid base catalysts (CaO supported on CeO₂, Al₂O₃, and ZrO₂) in HTL of macroalgae at different reaction temperatures, catalyst amounts and also involving the use of co-solvent. The possible reaction mechanism of ester functional compound formation was also explored.

Biography:

Dr. Bijoy Biswas graduated (M.Sc) in Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, India, in 2013. He then joined the research group of Prof. Thallada Bhaskar at the CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum, India, at Material Resource Efficiency Division (MRED). He has contributed for the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass lignin, and aquatic biomass into high value products by applying thermochemical process such as pyrolysis and hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL). He optimized the reaction parameter for the production of selectively higher functional chemicals. The novelty also includes the role of temperature, solvents, catalysts, environment for enrichment of high value compounds using low value and abundantly available waste biomass. He has to his credit around 37 research publications in international peer-reviewed journals, 10 reputed conferences, and 8 book chapters and having more than 1212 citations with an h-index of 16.