Evaluation of biodiesel production from microalgae collected from fresh water habitat

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Year 2015 Vol 4 Issue 3
Document Type : Original article
¹Sudip Shah1 * ² Prakash Lokesh2
¹Department of Biochemistry, Padmashree Institute of Management and Sciences, Bangaluru-60, India
²Department of Biochemistry, Oxford College of Science, Bangaluru– 560102, India
Abstract
Algae are the fastest growing in the world. About 50% of their weight is oil. This lipid can be used to make biodiesel for cars, trucks and airplanes. Algae will someday be competitive as a source of biofuel. Continuous use of petroleum sourced fuels is now widely recognized as unsustainable because of depleting supplies and the contribution of these fuels to the accumulation of carbondioxide.

In this study, we tried to evaluate the physico-chemical properties of algal oil. A naturally occurring algal sample was collected from Kommaghatta lake, Bangalore. Algae were identified as Spirogyra sps. Oil was extracted from the dried algal samples using chloroform: methanol as a solvent system. Fatty acid analysis was done in Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bangalore. Physico-chemical properties of algal oil such as density, lipid content, pH were estimated.
Gas chromatographic analysis revealed higher percentage of methyl palmitate, methyl oleate, methyl linoleate. The physico-chemical properties of algal oil meet the properties of the standard fuel. Conclusion: It is concluded that the algal oil can be used as a potential biofuel.
Keywords
MMP Physio-chemical analysis MSA SOPMA I-Mutant Polyphen
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