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Microalgae are considered to be a promising alternative feedstock for next generation biofuels because of their rapid photosynthetic growth rates and less impact on land-use for food production compared with grain and other lignocellulosic biomass. In this study, a fast-growing, low-lipid, high-protein microalga species, Chlorella pyrenoidosa, was converted via hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) into four products: bio-crude oil, aqueous product, gaseous product, and solid residue. The effects of operating conditions (reaction temperature and retention time) on the distributions of carbon and nitrogen in HTL products were quantified. Carbon recovery (CR), nitrogen recovery (NR) and energy recovery in the bio-crude oil fraction generally increased with the increase of reaction temperature as well as the retention time. The highest energy recovery of bio-crude oil was 65.4%, obtained at 280 °C with 120 min retention …