Biodiesel Production from &lt;i&gt;Azolla filiculoides&lt;/i&gt; (Water Fern)

Salehzadeh, Ali; Naeemi, Akram Sadat; Arasteh, Amir

doi:10.4314/tjpr.v13i6.19

Cited by 32 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…This oil productivity is significantly higher than from soybean (0.44 t/ha-year), sunflower (0.78 t/ha-year), rapeseed (1.17 t/ha-year) and oil palm (6.0 t/ha-year), but lower than the theoretical yield from microalgae (up to 73 t/ha-year, for Nannochloropsis sp.) [ 28 , 29 , 68 ]. As Azolla/ A. azollae contain a range of C16:0, C18:2 and C18:3 fatty acids, their conversion to methyl esters means that the resultant biodiesel meets the crucial requirements of fuel density, cetane number and iodine value for biodiesel set by the EN14214 standard [ 28 ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aquatic plant Azolla as the universal feedstock for biofuel production

Miranda

Biswas

Ramkumar

et al. 2016

Biotechnol Biofuels

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BackgroundThe quest for sustainable production of renewable and cheap biofuels has triggered an intensive search for domestication of the next generation of bioenergy crops. Aquatic plants which can rapidly colonize wetlands are attracting attention because of their ability to grow in wastewaters and produce large amounts of biomass. Representatives of Azolla species are some of the fastest growing plants, producing substantial biomass when growing in contaminated water and natural ecosystems. Together with their evolutional symbiont, the cyanobacterium Anabaena azollae, Azolla biomass has a unique chemical composition accumulating in each leaf including three major types of bioenergy molecules: cellulose/hemicellulose, starch and lipids, resembling combinations of terrestrial bioenergy crops and microalgae.ResultsThe growth of Azolla filiculoides in synthetic wastewater led up to 25, 69, 24 and 40 % reduction of NH4–N, NO3–N, PO4–P and selenium, respectively, after 5 days of treatment. This led to a 2.6-fold reduction in toxicity of the treated wastewater to shrimps, common inhabitants of wetlands. Two Azolla species, Azolla filiculoides and Azolla pinnata, were used as feedstock for the production of a range of functional hydrocarbons through hydrothermal liquefaction, bio-hydrogen and bio-ethanol. Given the high annual productivity of Azolla, hydrothermal liquefaction can lead to the theoretical production of 20.2 t/ha-year of bio-oil and 48 t/ha-year of bio-char. The ethanol production from Azolla filiculoides, 11.7 × 103 L/ha-year, is close to that from corn stover (13.3 × 103 L/ha-year), but higher than from miscanthus (2.3 × 103 L/ha-year) and woody plants, such as willow (0.3 × 103 L/ha-year) and poplar (1.3 × 103 L/ha-year). With a high C/N ratio, fermentation of Azolla biomass generates 2.2 mol/mol glucose/xylose of hydrogen, making this species a competitive feedstock for hydrogen production compared with other bioenergy crops.ConclusionsThe high productivity, the ability to grow on wastewaters and unique chemical composition make Azolla species the most attractive, sustainable and universal feedstock for low cost, low energy demanding, near zero maintenance system for the production of a wide spectrum of renewable biofuels.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13068-016-0628-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aquatic plant Azolla as the universal feedstock for biofuel production

Miranda

Biswas

Ramkumar

et al. 2016

Biotechnol Biofuels

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“…The percentage of crude fat is 6.37% and the value is higher than the study conducted in these research [38,39,41,[43][44][45], which shows the range of crude fat between 0.5% -4.5%. Further test could be conducted to determined types of fatty acids present in the sample because research by [9,10,51] showed that Azolla contains fatty acids with good biodiesel property and meets most of the important requirement for biodiesel standards. Azolla also was investigated to be produced as bio-oil [40].…”

Section: Proximate Analysis Of Azollamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Azolla is also used as feed due to its high protein and amino acid content compared to soybean [7]. Various research has been done and is still ongoing to utilize Azolla as a phytoremediator [8] and sustainable bioenergy source [9][10][11][12][13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preliminary study on Azolla cultivation and characterization for sustainable biomass source

Adzman

Goh

Johari

et al. 2022

J. Phys.: Conf. Ser.

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Azolla is a freshwater fern that belongs to the Azollaceae family. It is easy to grow and is highly productive. It can fix atmospheric nitrogen due to the presence of Anabaena azollae. Azolla has been applied to the rice field as a classic fertilizer. It is a good source of protein and contains almost all essential amino acids and minerals. Various research has been done and is still ongoing to determine the capability of Azolla as a phytoremediator and to be used as a sustainable bioenergy source. This preliminary study investigated the ideal environment for Azolla cultivation in Malaysia (humid weather throughout the year with average daily temperature across Malaysia between 21°C and 32°C). To the best of our knowledge, there is no research conducted in Malaysia to study the optimum environment for Azolla cultivation. Therefore, determining the optimum condition for growing Azolla was done by manipulating parameters: water depth, nutrient concentration, pH, and sunlight exposure. Meanwhile, chemical compositions (moisture, crude protein, crude fat, ash, crude fibre, carbohydrate and energy) were determined using proximate analysis. Results obtained showed that Azolla growth was the best in water depth of 20 cm, the nutrient concentration of 812.5 ppm, pH of 7 and under 100% sunlight exposure. Dried Azolla had 6.38% moisture, 27.1% crude protein, 6.37% crude fat, 14.29% ash, 34.29% crude fibre, 45.86% carbohydrate and 349.17 kcal/100 g energy. Based on the result, Azolla cultivated in this experiment could be used as a sustainable biomass source to produce animal feed (high protein content) and bioenergy (high fibre content).

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“…Some methods of biofuel production from Azolla are hydrothermal liquefaction, transesterification, pyrolysis, torrefaction, and the isolation of yeasts. Before using any method to produce biofuel, the first step is to wash the plant properly to remove epiphytes and sand particles 33 . Before transesterification, crude oil is extracted from dried Azolla utilizing chloroform‐methanol (2:1).…”

Section: Biofuel From Aquatic Plantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is interesting to note here that the FAME that is produced can be directly used in diesel engines without further improvement. Details of the transesterification method can be found in the literature 33,35,36 . Finding the optimum conditions is very important in the case of transesterification.…”

Section: Biofuel From Aquatic Plantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A review of biofuel production from floating aquatic plants: an emerging source of bio‐renewable energy

Arefin

Rashid

Islam

2021

Biofuels Bioprod Bioref

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Aquatic plants have been considered as a cause for concern because they impede aquatic flora and fauna. However, biofuel production from aquatic plants is an emerging energy source. As a consequence, this paper presents a detailed review of bio‐fuel production from floating aquatic plants with their physicochemical properties. The main focus of this study is to evaluate the biofuel production potential of some major aquatic plants. This paper also presents some methods for biofuel production from aquatic plants that are feasible for future energy generation. Five major types of floating aquatic plants are analyzed in this study, viz. Azolla, water hyacinth, water fern, water lettuce, and duckweed, with their related biofuel production methodologies such as transesterification, pyrolysis, hydrolysis, and torrefaction. This paper also evaluates optimum bio‐fuel production conditions for aquatic plants and their upgradation methodologies. Conventional fuel and aquatic bio‐fuel properties are also compared in this study. Findings suggest that, depending on calorific value and viscosity, Azolla and water fern (Salvania molesta) are better aquatic plants to generate high‐quality (similar to diesel) biofuels compared with other aquatic plants. Bio‐fuel production from water fern, water lettuce, and duckweed are also comparatively less focused sources of energy. The cost associated with cleaning invasive aquatic plants from water can be turned into an investment by producing biofuel from aquatic plants using sustainable techniques. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

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Biodiesel Production from <i>Azolla filiculoides</i> (Water Fern)

Cited by 32 publications

References 14 publications

Aquatic plant Azolla as the universal feedstock for biofuel production

Aquatic plant Azolla as the universal feedstock for biofuel production

Preliminary study on Azolla cultivation and characterization for sustainable biomass source

A review of biofuel production from floating aquatic plants: an emerging source of bio‐renewable energy

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