(683e) Biodiesel Production From Microalgae

Abstract

Biodiesel production from algae is a promising technique. Microalgae have the potential to produce 5,000-15,000 gallons of biodiesel per acre per year. However, there are challenges; these include high yield of algae biomass with high lipid content and the effective technique to harvest the grown algae, extract the algal oil and transesterify the oil to biodiesel.

We have designed a new Tubular Photo-BioReactor (TPBR) to achieve a high yield of 1g of dry algal biomass per liter of medium within 12 days, with a lipid content of 12% approximately. We are also testing an in situ technique that would integrate transesterification and oil extraction into one step.