Abstract

LARGE SCALE PRODUCTION OF MICRO ALGAE AND EXTRACTION OF BIOOIL BY TRANS ESTERIFICATION METHOD

G. Rajkumar and *Dr. J. Thirumagal

Abstract

Algae are a diverse group of eukaryotic photosynthetic organisms that constitute over 40,000 species. They can be single – celled (unicellular) or multicellular such as seaweed. Microalgae has been described a s natures very own power cells and could provide alternatives to petroleum based fuels without competing with crops. In this study, the algae species selected were Chlorella pyrenoidosa and Scenedesmus. It was initially expanded in its selective medium (Fog’s medium) and then expanded to a larger scale after putting various trials at various concentrations. It was found that chlorella well adapted to the waste water as there was increase in the absorbance and doubling time. Carbon dioxide seemed to enhance the growth of algae even more than aerators used. The algae were expanded in the Bubble tops of 25 litres capacity to get the mass production of algae for the Biodiesel production. Collected biomass The Flocculating agent used was the Aluminum Chloride that showed good separation. Decreasing the pH to 4 showed a better result and faster flocculation thus it was performed by decreasing pH to 4. Then the collected biomass was used for the Biodiesel production by mixing the catalyst mixture consisting of Sodium Hydroxide and the solvent methanol and the Trans esterification process was carried out and allowed to settle for 16 hrs. In this study, the oil was produced from the algae efficiently by Trans esterification which was environmental friendly. The amount of oil extracted was found to be 28.8 ml. By this way, Chlorella pyrenoidosa can be used as renewable energy source.

Keywords: Microalgae, Chlorella pyrenoidosa, Scenedesmus, Biooil, Trans esterification.