Cultivation and lipid extraction from microalgal biomass scenesdesmus quadricauda and chiarella sorokiniana for biofuel production

Abstract

Microalgae are microscopic photosynthetic organisms which are found in both marine and freshwater environments. Recently, microalgae are popularly researched to be converted into biofuels because of its high lipid content. However, there are too many algae species available in the world. Thus, it is hard to determine the most suitable species for biofuel production. The main aim of this research is to compare the lipid content of microalgae species Scenedesmus quadricauda and Chiarella sorokiniana. This research focused on the cultivation, harvesting and processing of microalgae and converting it into lipids for various uses. The micro algae are first cultivated in photo-bioreactors. The algae are then harvested and separated from its medium by using centrifuge. The algae crude is then freeze-dried before going through sonification to break its cell walls. The lipids produced could then go through transesterification to turn into biofuel such as biodiesel, jet fuel and so on. This study showed that Chiarella sorokiniana has higher lipid content than Scenesdesmus quadricauda. Thus, Chiarella sorokiniana is more suitable to be used for biofuel production.