Potential production of biodiesel from green microalgae

This work involves the study of the potential production of biodiesel from green microalgae. The green microalgae were cultured and treated with different nutrient concentrations of 0, 0.175, 0.35, 2 and 4 g in the laboratory where they were later centrifuged. The 4 g treatment had the highest growth of 0.186 cell/h, followed by the 2 g treatment of 0.151 cell/h within 24 h. The 0, 0.175 and 0.35 g had similar growth rates which were lower than the 4 and 2 g. Oil was extracted from the centrifuged cultured algae sample and the raw algae sample using hexane via Soxhlet extractor. The total oil extracted from 15 g of the centrifuged sample dry biomass and 30 g of the raw sample dry biomass were 2.038 and 3.826 g, giving a yield of 13.6 and 12.8%, respectively. The amounts of hexane recovered from the centrifuged sample and the raw sample were 46.67 and 53.33%, respectively. The results suggest hexane can be used to extract algal oil which can be transesterified to biodiesel which is more environmentally friendly than fossil diesels.