A Comparative study of cyanobacteria and microalgae for biofuel production

Abstract

The use of algae for producing biofuel is expected to play a critical role as an alternative energy source in the near future, particularly in light of depleting fossil fuel reserves and the adverse environmental impact on fossil fuels.This study discusses the production of biofuel from cyanobacteria and microalgae by various processes. Microalgae and cyanobacteria can produce high amount of lipids and that is the sole reason for they being identified as a potential biodiesel feedstock. They also have the ability to fix CO2 and have rapid growth rates. It is observed that algae can be converted to oily substances that grows in Carbon-dioxide enriched air. It also can contribute to solve major problems of air pollution resulting from CO2 evolution This experiment is undertaken to know the proper trans-esterification, amount of biodiesel production (ester) from cyanobacteria and microalgae species. In this experiment, common species such as Cyanobacterium aponinum and Spirogyra sp. are used to compare the amount of biodiesel production. It is observed that C.aponinum can produce high amount of algal oil and biodiesel (ester) than Spirogyra sp. However, biomass when calculated was found to be higher in C.aponinum compared to Spirogyra sp. The paper indicates that biodiesel can be produced from both the species with C.aponinum being a better one.