An Integrated Methodology towards Mitigation of Global Warming and Biomass Production for Biodiesel using Chlorella sorokiniana BTA 9031

Abstract

The rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2)concentration as well as depletion of fossil fuel reserves calls for the development of clean and ecofriendly alternative fuel source. Recently, lipid rich microalgal biomass is being extensively studied for generation of biodiesel however, the expensesincurred on production of microalgal biomassis a significant hurdle. Almost 80 % of the production costis generated from the cultivation medium which majorly comprise of carbon, nitrogen and phosphate. If the microalgal cultivation could be linked to a CO2 capturing unit than the cost of production could be reduced to a large extent. CO2 absorption by means of aqueous amine solvents is known to be a mature technology and could be integrated with microalgal cultivation unit for efficient utilization of the captured CO2. In this present research work, blended solution of piperazine (PZ) and2-amino-2-methyl-1-propanol (AMP) (5/25 wt. %) was used to capture CO2 and then the captured CO2 was utilized as an inorganic carbon stream for growing Chlorella sorokiniana BTA 9031 for biodiesel production. The CO2rate absorption was governed by series of process variablesviz.solvent flow rate ranges (1.5 to 3) ×10⁻4 m3 min-1, absorption temperature (298 to 313) K,concentration of CO2 (10 to 15) kPa and gas flow rate(5 to 8) ×10⁻3 m3 min-1. The detected final biomass strengthofChlorella sorokiniana BTA 9031 was0.955g L-1. The fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) determinedsubsequentlyacid transesterification was observed to contain fatty acids suitable for biodiesel production.