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We analyzed glycerol using thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and compared the separation resolution of some mobile phases. When acetonitrile:distilled water (85:15 v/v) was used as a mobile phase, the band of glycerol on the TLC was more distinctly and rapidly separated. Using TLC analysis, we prepared a calibration curve for the glycerol concentration vs. the area of the glycerol band in which the glycerol concentration of the x-axis was converted into a log-scale ranging from 3.0 to 0.0625 (%, w/v). Based on this calibration curve, the residual glycerol concentration (0.2 [%, w/v]) in biodiesel was determined successfully using TLC analysis. When the results of the TLC analysis were compared with those of a chemical and enzymatic assay, the results were fairly similar. We conclude that TLC without additional analytical instruments can be used as an alternative method for the quantitative analysis of the concentration of glycerol in biodiesel.

One of the most important challenges facing the Spirulina mass cultivation industry is to find a way to reduce the high production costs involved in production. Although the most commercial medium (Zarrouk's medium) for Spirulina cultivation is too expensive to use, it contains higher amount of NaHCO 3 (16.80 g L −1), trace metals and vitamin solutions. The purpose of this study was to increase the efficiency of Spirulina platensis biomass production by developing a low-cost culture medium at an isolated tropical island such as Chuuk State, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). This study set out to formulate a lowcost medium for the culture of S. platensis, by substituting nutrients of Zarrouk's medium using fertilizer

1) Among various pretreatment processes for bioethanol production, extrusion pretreatment, one of cheap and simple process was investigated to efficiently produce fermentable sugars from micro alga, Chlorella sp. The biomass was pretreated in a single screw extruder at five different barrel temperatures of 45, 50, 55, 60 and 65℃, respectively with five screw rotation speed of 10, 50, 100, 150 and 200 rpm. The pretreated biomass was reacted with two different hydrolyzing enzymes of cellulase and amyloglucosidase since the biomass contained different types of carbohydrates, compared to cellulose of agricultural by-products such wheat and corn stovers, etc. In general, higher glucose conversion yield was obtained as 13.24 (%, w/w) at 55℃ of barrel tem perature and 100 rpm of screw speed conditions. In treating 5 FPU/glucan of cellulase and 150 Unit/mL of amyloglucosidase, ca. 64% of cellulose and 40% of polysaccharides in the micro alga were converted into glucose, which was higher yields than those from other reported data without applying an extrusion process. 84% of the fermentable sugars obtained from the hyrolyzing processes were fermented into ethanol in considering 50% of theoretical maximum fermentation yield of the yeast. These results implied that high speed extrusion could be suitable as a pretreatment process for the production of bioethanol from Chlorella sp.