Archive | 2019
Biodiesel and Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid (PUFA)Potential of Microalgae Biomass-A Short Review
Abstract
Microalgae (size of micrometers), which is generally found as green suspension on the surface of waste/fresh water, are unicellular photosynthetic organisms that require primarily three components to produce biomass, i.e., water, CO2, and sunlight with relatively higher photosynthetic efficiency of 3-9% against 0.5% for terrestrial plants. The microalgae grow in aquatic environment in diverse sources of water such as fresh, industrial waste, marine, brackish and open ponds or lakes. Microalgae grow best in waste water by utilizing the essential nutrients N, P and K of the industrial effluent required for the cultivation and growth of microalgae. Microalgae needs less water (20L of water/L of oil) compared to regular terrestrial crops (3000L of water/L of oil). Microalgae can either be autotrophic or heterotrophic under natural growth conditions [1-3]. Algal lipids have 20-50% oil content which is higher than soybeans oil (18%) and palm oil (40%). However, the productivity of biodiesel (liter/hectare/year) is much higher (~ 100000) for microalgae compared to soybean oil (661) and palm oil (5585). These are following major advantages of cultivation of algae over regular vegetable crops that attract attention of cultivators [3-8]: