Micro-algal Lipids: A Potential Source of Biodiesel
Abstract
The global demand of energy is rising day by day. Petroleum based fuels are accepted as unsustainable because of depleting supplies and they also leads to the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the environment. The oil content of various microalgae is up to 80% of their dry biomass. It is also reported that some microalgae can double their biomasses within 24 hours and the shortest doubling time during their growth is around 3.5 hours which makes microalgae an ideal renewable source for biofuel production. Photosynthesis based biofuel production summarize energy production with biological carbon dioxide fixation. Ideally they are carbon neutral, and they minimize emission of greenhouse gases. Microalgae are the group of microorganisms, which contains a huge amount of triacylglycerol inside the cellular organization. Trans-esterification process produces FAME (fatty acid methyl esters). Biodiesel can be used as a fuel for vehicles in its pure form, but it is usually used as a diesel additive to reduce levels of particulates, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbons from diesel-powered vehicles. Microalgae, which can be either prokaryotic (cyanobacteria) or eukaryotic (green algae, diatoms) can grow rapidly as they have relatively simple cellular structure and can have high lipid percentage. They also require a least land area as compared to other biofuel crops. They are highly promising biofuel source. The production of biofuel from microalgae is a complex process. It comprises microalgae cultivation in a low cost nutrient medium, harvesting of cells from cultivation medium, cell drying &cell disruption (cells separation from the growth medium), low cost and efficient lipid extraction for biodiesel production through trans-esterification and starch hydrolysis, fermentation & distillation for bioethanol production. However, these processes are complex, technologically challenges and economically expensive. A significant challenge lies ahead for devising a viable biofuel production process.
Keywords:
Microalgae, Biodiesel, Algal lipids, Transesterification, Algal fuelDownloads
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Copyright (c) 2015 Parveen Kumar, Pradeep Kumar Sharma, Pradip Kumar Sharma, Deepansh Sharma
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