Biofuel from Algae Biomass

Abstract

Present research focuses on the study of algae from water sources in and around Rourkela and selection of potential algal species for biofuel production. Algae samples were collected from Koelriver at Jhirpani, Lotus point in National Institute of Technology, Rourkela campus and Bramhini river in Rourkela city. Forty different algal axenic culture was isolated from the algal samples, identified the species and Growth kinetics were studied. Among the identified species, Chlorella Pyrenoidosa,ChroococcusSp,andCladophoraspwere found to be potential algae showing high specific growth rate than other species. Furthermore, the highest yield of biomass was obtained with CladophoraSp and hence it was selected for further study. The combined enzyme and acid pretrement was found to be most effective producing highest amount of reducible sugars which was further converted to ethanol by fermentation with AspergillusNiger,TReesei,SacharomycesCerevisiae. 54 ml of 16 % ethanol was obtained by fermentation process. Further algal lipid was extracted by modified Folch method and biodiesel was produced by transesterification reaction. 0.0583 g/h lipid productivity, 19.6% Lipid yield and 65% biodiesel production were achieved. Thus the study has demonstrated that Chlorella sp. present in local water body of Rourkela is a potential algal species for biodiesel and bioethanol production.