An investigation of biodiesel production from microalgae found in Mauritian waters

Abstract

HIGHLIGHTSTotal micro-phytoplankton count amounted to 6.59±1.27x10 5 cells L -1 which was dominated by diatoms (95.2%), followed by dinoflagellates (2.9%) and cyanobacteria (1.9%).  The cyanobacterial mats were identified as Leptolyngbya sp. and Nodularia harveyana, and the endosymbiotic dinoflagellates as the Symbiodinium clade C.  There were also differences recorded in the % lipid of the different microalgae (p<0.005) -among all, Symbiodinium clade C had the highest with (38.39±6.58%). The aim of this study was to assess the lipid content and the subsequent potential of different microalgae present in the Mauritian marine water to produce biodiesel. The share of micro-phytoplankton species in the water column was determined. The cyanobacterial mats and endosymbiotic dinoflagellates were characterised morphologically and genetically using RFLP. The samples were quantified gravimetrically and analysed using 1 H & 13 C NMR spectroscopy. Total micro-phytoplankton count amounted to 6.59±1.27x10 5 cells L -1 which was dominated by diatoms (95.2%), followed by dinoflagellates (2.9%) and cyanobacteria (1.9%). The cyanobacterial mats were identified as Leptolyngbya sp. and Nodularia harveyana, and the RFLP characterised the endosymbiotic dinoflagellates as the Symbiodinium clade C. The highest amount of lipid was recorded in the Symbiodinium clade C (38.39±6.58%).1 H and 13 C NMR analyses indicated the presence of acyl glycerols. An attempt to synthesise biodiesel by alkaline trans-esterification reaction was also performed and the presence of biodiesel was detected using the Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy. The Infrared analysis yielded peaks at around 1738cm -1 and 1200cm -1 characteristic of the carbonyl and ether groups respectively, indicating the presence of biodiesel.

Isolation Purification and Culturing of Cyanobacteria and Microalgae towards Biodiesel Production: Current Status

“…It was observed a strong negative relationship between lipid content, growth and nutrient availability, resulting in high lipid and pigment production in combination with a limited growth rate in nutrient depleted treatments (Steinhoff et al, 2014). A study carried out on different microalgae found in Mauritian marine water reported that highest amount of lipid was recorded in the Symbiodinium clade C. The presence of biodiesel was detected also by alkaline trans-esterification reaction (Keshini Beetul et al, 2014). Potentiality of biodiesel production in Bangladesh from non-edible oil has recently been focused (Ferdous et al, 2014).…”

“…It is also reported and proposed some of the modified methods of those as well. For example a study carried by Keshini Beetul and others used modified Folch method with chloroform: methanol 1:1 (v/v) for the extraction of total lipids (Keshini Beetul et al, 2014). Abou-Shanab (Abou-Shanab et al, 2011) reported that the total lipids were extracted from the fresh microalgal biomass using the modified methods of Bligh and Dyer and fatty acids were analyzed by the modified method of Lepage and Roy (Lepage & Roy, 1986).…”

Recent trends in biodiesel production

“…Moreover, despite sharing the same basic photosynthetic machinery as the C3 land plants (Chisti, 2013a), microalgal species are more efficient in converting sunlight to biochemical energy; 5-8.3% vs. 2.4-4.6%, respectively (Zhu et al, 2008;Stephenson et al, 2011;Chisti, 2013b). Such high theoretical productivities and oil accumulation exhibited by certain algal species (Table 3) have made biodiesel production by algal oil transesterification an ultimate choice for numerous research and development attempts (Griffiths et al, 2012;Beetul et al, 2014). Regardless of the growth systems applied (i.e., phototrophic or heterotrophic), the following steps are involved in processing algal biomass including, microalgae growth, harvest, dewatering, and drying (Daroch et al, 2013).…”

Pyrolysis of Parinari polyandra Benth fruit shell for bio-oil production

“…A vast number of plant materials including energy crops and various agricultural wastes are being considered as bio-oil feedstock (Abnisia et al, 2011, Omar et al, 2011Garcia et al,2012;Park et al, 2012;Balan et al, 2014;Beetul et al, 2014.;Kumar, 2014)..The quality of bio-oil obtained depends on the properties of the biomass as well as operating conditions (Park et al, 2012). Despite the fact that there have been various research works conducted on a number of energy crops and agricultural wastes for bio-oil production such as rice husk (Garcia et al, 2012), cassava rhizomes (Pattiya et al, 2008), miscanthus (Hodgson et al,2010) corn stover and bagasse among others, there is still a growing need to investigate nonconventional biomass feedstock particularly those of no other applications such as Parinari polyandra Benth.…”