Biodiesel Production and Characterization from Indigenous Mixed Algal Biomass

Abstract

Rapid urbanization and industrialization in 20th and 21st century brings the scarcity of fossil fuel resources. On top of that, these are the main causes of greenhouse gas emission and global warming. Research works on alternative fuels including biofuels are taking place throughout the world. Many of the resources and sources for energy production have been invented and discovered in last few decades. Biodiesel, one of the alternative and renewable source of energy, produced from different oils and fats has become prominent in these days. But it is economically incompatible with petroleum diesel. Algal fuel, on that perspective, is very new but might be one of the most promising fuel sources in near future. Algae s faster growth rate along with high oil content has drawn the attention of researchers worldwide. First world countries like USA is investing billions of dollars for the research on algal fuel. But in India, where the necessity is much more, very few research works are taking place. Researchers have proved that all three types of biofuels i.e. biodiesel, bioethanol and biogas can be produced from algal mass. Algae, on the other hand, utilize CO2 for their growth and can be minimized some sort of pollution. In Punjab, India, algae grow rapidly in several water-bodies. But all those are not used by anybody for any purpose. This biomass was used to produce biodiesel in this research work. The algae were collected from pisciculture- ponds and a canal called Simlapuri Nahar. The growth parameters of these algae were optimized in terms of maximum yield of biomass with paramount oil content. It was found4l/pond CDS, 30ml/l CO2, 0.5m water depth, 5°C- 10°C temperature and every 1.5h mixing intensity are the optimized conditions for the growth of these algae. Almost 12kg of algae was produced from 5kg of algae and the oil content of the increased to almost 12% from 8.9% under optimized conditions. A statistical analysis proved that the most contributing parameters, for the growth of these algae and increase