DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

A.C. TECH CAMPUS

ANNA UNIVERSITY, CHENNAI-600 025

PHASE I - REVIEW I

Name of the student : SHREEJEETH R D

Register Number : 2018409011

Degree and Branch : M. Tech (PRPC)

Month and Year of Submission : August 2019

Title of the Project : Numerical analysis on convective heat

transfer characteristics of microalgae

slurries in a circular tube flow.

Name and Designation

of Supervisor : DR. V.T. PERARASU

Assistant Professor,

Department of Chemical Engineering

Alagappa College of technology,

Anna University,

Chennai - 600 025.

DATE: SIGNATURE OF THE SUPERVISOR

 1. INTRODUCTION

Microalgae are the microscopic photosynthetic organisms, which are found in

marine and freshwater environments. They are abundance in nature and their
reproduction rate and process is so feasible, that their availability may never
diminish over a period of time. These micro-organisms reproduce in the
presence of sunlight, CO2 and some other nutrients very effectively which
doesn’t even require any cultivated lands, as it can grow in degraded lands also.
The main property of microalgae which is of most importance is that it can
absorb CO2 and produce macro organic matter like carbohydrates, lipids,
proteins vitamins, etc. This microalgae, along with bacteria, forms the base of
our food web as it acts as a food for various micro-organisms and other living
creatures including humans.

Kit Wayne Chew et al. (2017) has mentioned that components like proteins and
carbohydrates, extracted form microalgae with the help of bio refineries have
been used for human and animal nutrition. Apart from that, microalgae mainly
have an unusual proportion of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and phosphorous etc.,
which can be used for multiple applications and the different species of
microalgae, which has various different chemical compositions, help us deal
with some specific purposes. So, in the recent years, with the increasing demand
for alternative fuels, these microalgae have been compromised to be the most
viable source for various kinds of energy. The microalgae biomass, produced
has many bio-active compounds which can be used for bio-diesel production, in
pharma and food industries, etc. But the dense structure of microalgae cell wall
has been a hindrance in using the algae efficiently and so, some pre-treatment
methods are being done to enhance the performance of these cells.

Here, tubular reactor has been so efficient and simple for carrying out the
hydrothermal pre-treatment of micro algal biomass, where it is heated to break
the cell walls and it promotes the release of compounds like lipids,
carbohydrates, into the aqueous medium. M.E. Alzate et al. (2013) has
mentioned that there is a productivity enhancement of 40% for CH4 in non-
extracted nanochloropsis and 15% for the lipid-extracted nanochloropsis while
carrying out the thermal pre-treatment. So, thermal pre-treatment has been an
essential step in improving the efficiency of bio-gas and bio-diesel production.
In this study, the flow of microalgae slurry has been modelled and simulated and
the temperature characteristics have been studied.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

Chen et al. (2019) have investigated the rheological behaviour during

hydrothermal pre-treatment of the microalgae slurry for the first time. The
results revealed that the insoluble organics released from microalgae cells was
the main factor affecting the rheological behaviour of microalgae slurry. The
variation of the rheokinetics model parameters with temperature revealed that
the temperature has an obviously positive influence on the hydrothermal pre-
treatment process of the microalgae slurry.

Schneider and Gerber (2014) derived a correlation to calculate the viscosity

based on changes in temperature and total solids content. The experiment was
done on both untreated and thermally treated micro algal biomass
Nannochloropsis salina. For all samples a non-Newtonian and shear-thinning
behaviour was detected indicating pseudo plastic fluids. It was observed that the
viscosity increased with increasing solid content and decreased with increasing
temperature, where this proves that the significance of thermal pre-treatment.

Ranganathan and Savithri, (2018) have used the CFD technique to simulate the
hydrothermal liquefaction of Nannochloropsis sp. microalgae in a lab-scale
continuous plug-flow reactor to understand the fluid dynamics, heat transfer,
and reaction kinetics in a HTL reactor under hydrothermal condition. The
temperature profile and product yield were validated with the experimental data
available in the literature and a parametric study was done to study the effects
of slurry flowrate, temperature and external heat transfer co-efficient on the
product yield. They have used ANSYS software to model the process and
considered the flow as a single phase flow.

Schwede et al. (2013) have investigated the microalgae Nannochloropsis salina

as a feedstock for anaerobic digestion under different conditions and its
corresponding methane yield was measured. This study concludes that the
Thermal pre-treatment appears to be an appropriate method to provide
degradable material for anaerobic digestion for improving the efficiency of bio-
gas production.

Chen et al. (2019) have investigated the convective heat transfer characteristics
of microalgae slurries flowing through a uniformly heated circular tube were
experimentally for the first time. The results revealed that the microalgae cell
concentration and cell motion in the solid–liquid two-phase flow were the two
main factors affecting the convective heat transfer characteristics of microalgae
slurries in laminar tube flow. This study has provided the guidance for the design
of tubular heat exchangers in continuous hydrothermal pre-treatment systems

2.1 LITERATURE SUMMARY

Numerous works have been published on algae being the best alternative for
fossil fuels and the being the one fulfilling the energy demand. Based on that, a
number of rheological studies have been done on microalgae slurries studying
about the physical and chemical characteristics. But there is only scanty
literature available on modelling or simulation of microalgae slurries. Thus, this
study is about developing a model for microalgae slurries, considering it as
multi-phase flow, using CFD techniques and software.
2.2 OBJECTIVES

1. To develop and validate a CFD model for heat transfer performance in a

circular tube.
2. To study the heat transfer characteristics of microalgae slurry for
various microalgae cell concentration.

REFERENCES

1. Alzate M.E., Muñoz R., Rogalla F., Fdz-Polanco F., Pérez -Elvira S.I.
(2013), ‘Biochemical Methane Potential of microalgae biomass after
lipid extraction’, Chemical Engineering Journal vol.243, pp.405-410.
2. Douglas C. Elliott, Todd R. Hart, Andrew J. Schmidt, Gary G.
Neuenschwander, LeslieJ.Rotness, Mariefel V. Olarte, Alan H. Zacher,
Karl O. Albrecht, Richard T. Hallen, Johnathan E. Holladay (2013),
‘Process development for hydrothermal liquefaction of algae feed stocks
in a continuous-flow reactor’, Algal Research vol.2, pp.445–454.
3. Hao Chen, Qian Fu, Qiang Liao, Chao Xiao, Yun Huang, Ao Xia, Xun
Zhu, Zhongyin Kang (2019), ‘Rheokinetics of microalgae slurry during
hydrothermal pretreatment processes’, Bioresource Technology vol.289,
121650.
4. Hao Chen, Qiang Liao, Qian Fu, Yun Huang, Ao Xia, Chao Xiao, Xun
Zhu (2019), ‘Convective heat transfer characteristics of microalgae
slurries in a circular tube flow’, International Journal of Heat and Mass
Transfer vol.137, pp.823-834.
5. Indira Priyadarshani and Biswajit Rath (2012), ‘Commercial and
industrial applications of micro algae – A review’, Journal of Algal
Biomass Utilization vol.3, No.4, pp.89–100

6. Kit Wayne Chew, Jing Ying Yap, Pau Loke Show, Ng Hui Suan, Joon
Ching Juan, Tau Chuan Ling, Duu-Jong Lee, Jo-Shu Chang (2017),
‘Microalgae biorefinery: High value products perspectives’, Bioresource
Technology vol.229, pp.53–62.
7. Nico Schneider, Mandy Gerber (2014), ‘Correlation between viscosity,
temperature and total solid content of algal biomass’, Bioresource
Technology vol.170, pp.293-302.
8. Panneerselvam Ranganathan, Sivaraman Savithri (2018),
‘Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation of Hydrothermal
Liquefaction of Microalgae in a Continuous Plug-Flow Reactor’,
Bioresource Technology vol.258, pp. 151-157.
9. Richa Katiyar, B.R. Gurjar, Shalini Biswas, Vikas Pruthi, Nalin Kumar,
Prashant Kumar (2017), ‘Microalgae: An emerging source of energy
based bio-products and a solution for environmental issues’, Renewable
and Sustainable Energy Reviews vol.72, pp.1083-1093.
10. Sebastian Schwede, Zia-Ur Rehman, Mandy Gerber, Carsten Theiss,
Roland Span (2013), ‘Effects of thermal pretreatment on anaerobic
digestion of Nannochloropsis salina biomass’, Bioresource Technology
vol.143, pp.505-511.