Biomass Productivity and Fatty Acid Composition of Chlorella lobophora V M Andreyeva, a Potential Feed Stock for Biodiesel Production

Abstract

Green algae represent the fastest producible source of biomass that has diverse uses as biofuel, food, feed-stocks and the like. The biomass is rich in oils, which can be used as biofuel and the cultivation may be used to purify water as well. Productivity and quality of algal biomass depends on species and strains as well as environmental conditions of growth. Therefore, identification of new species and strains as well as standardization of media composition and environmental conditions for optimum yield of specific products, especially oil has a high relevance in algal technological research. In this connection, biomass productivity and oil yield of a local strain of Chlorella lobophora in BBM and modified BBM media are compared. Chemical characterization of the oil and feasibility of biodiesel production from the extracted oil is also assessed. Biomass productivity and the lipid productivity of the alga in both the media are found to be significantly different (P < 0.05). Fatty acid profiling of the oil extracted from the dried algal biomass using GC-MS analysis reveals that Palmitic acid (16:0) and Oleic acid (18:1) are the major fatty acids and nutraceutically important fatty acids are also present. The oil can be effectively transesterified to methyl esters. FTIR spectroscopy confirms the quality of the biodiesel produced. As the potentials of this local algal strain for biomass production and oil yield is confirmed, further standardization of environment conditions for better oil yield and quality biomass production is progressing to optimize its value as globally competent nutraceutical and biofuel resource.

Cultivation of Microalgae in Medium Containing Palm Oil Mill Effluent and Its Conversion Into Biofuel

“…increased composition of C12:0, C14:0, C16:0, C16:1 and C18:3 while those of C18:0, C18:1 and C18:2 decreased compared to its oil counterpart. This was supported by the research of Kaur et al (2012), He et al (2013) and Santhoshkumar et al (2015). The FAME produced had 69.9% ester content.…”

Potential of Chlorella Species as Feedstock for Bioenergy Production: A Review

“…Champenois suggested that Coelastrella vacuolate is the current valid name for this C. pyrenoidosa [14]. Just a few studies are available on C. lobophora [26], [27], therefore, more research is required to assess the potential of C. lobophora for bioenergy production.…”

Design and Evaluation of a Helical-Tubular Photobioreactor for Microalgae Production

“…1. Biomass productivity Biomass productivity, BP (kg.day -1 ) is estimated by the biomass accumulation using dry-weight measurement of algae culture as shown in the following equation (Santhoshkumar et al, 2015).…”