The aim of the study was to explore the possibility of bioremediation of oil refinery wastewaters by the cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. MK568070, isolated from the Adriatic Sea. The potential of biomass and lipid production was explored upon cultivation on oil refinery wastewater with excess CO2 after the removal of nutrients. The strain grew well in a wide range of salinities and ammonium concentrations, and was further tested on the wastewater from local oil refinery plant of various N-composition. Growth experiment under optimized conditions was used to analyze the lipid, carbohydrate and protein dynamics. The biomass yield was highly dependent on nutrient source and concentration, salinity and CO2 addition. Highest biomass yield was 767 mg/L of dry weight. Towards the end of the experiment the decline in carbohydrate to 18.9% is visible, whereas at the same point lipids, in particular saturated fatty acid methyl esters (FAME), started to accumulate within the cells. The content of lipids at the end of the experiment was 21.4%, with the unsaturation index 0.45 providing good biofuel feedstock characteristics. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy analysis demonstrated a high degree of lipid accumulation in respect to proteins, along with the structural changes and biomass accumulation. In addition, the N-removal from the wastewater was >99% efficient. The potential of lipid accumulation, due to the functional photosynthesis even at the minimal cell quota of nutrients, is critical for the usage of excess industrial CO2 and its industrial transformation to biodiesel. These findings enable further considerations of Synechococcus sp. (MK568070) for the industrial scale biomass production and wastewater remediation.
The first aim of this paper is to study the influence of four parameters of the transesterification reaction—reaction temperature (40–80 °C), time (1–3 h), the molar ratio of 1-octanol to sunflower oil (4:1–10:1) and mass fraction of the catalyst (1–3 wt%)—on the conversion of oil to biodiesel (octyl esters of fatty acids), with potassium hydroxide as a catalyst. The highest conversion, of 99.2%, was obtained at 60 °C, a molar ratio of 1-octanol to sunflower oil of 10:1, and with 2 wt% of the catalyst after an hour. The optimal conditions determined with response surface methodology (RSM) when aiming for the lowest possible parameter values and a conversion of 95% or higher were a temperature of 40 °C, time of 1 h, 1-octanol to oil molar ratio at 8.11:1 and mass fraction of catalyst of 2.01%. Furthermore, post-synthesis and purification (>99%), the application properties of pure fatty acid octyl esters (FAOCE) and their blends with mineral diesel and 1-octanol were evaluated. Standardized tests were conducted to measure the fuel’s density, viscosity, cold filter plugging point (CFPP), and lubricity. The addition of FAOCE in mineral diesel increases its density, viscosity, and lubricity. When added up to 20 vol%, FAOCE did not have an influence on the blend’s CFPP value. Still, all the blend property values fell within the limits required by standard EN 590.
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