Sustainable approach of biodiesel production from microalgae

Microalgae, a variant of 3rd generation feedstock are gaining importance for biofuel production. The study implements the idea of strategic cultivation of Neochloris oleoabundans UTEX 1185 with concomitant CO2 sequestration for subsequent downstream processing of biomass constituents into biodiesel. Suitable physico-chemical parameters were determined in shake flask using single and multi-parameter (Taguchi model) optimization techniques for the improvement of biomass and lipid production. The biomass concentration and the lipid content were enhanced by cultivating the microalgae in bubble column reactor as compared to conical flask under the optimized conditions. Hydrodynamic parameters were analyzed at different air flow rates. Bubble column with ring sparger was found most suitable. The developed two-phase Eulerian CFD model corroborated well with the experimental findings (mixing time). 13C-Metabolic flux analysis on lipid production of microalgae was also studied. Novel approach of biodiesel extraction process from wet microalgal biomass by using Hibiscus rosa-sinensis leaf extracted Fe2O3 nanocatalyst was developed with the overall LCA study of the process.