Biodiesel Production from Microalgae with Trans-esterification Method Using Microwave

Abstract

Microalgae has a highly potential to be biodiesel fuel due to its high lipid content. The research used Nannochloropsis oculata microalgae refer to high lipid content (approximately 68%). The objectives of this research are to study edible oil extraction process from Nannochloropsis oculata, to study the effect of microwave on biodiesel yield using KOH catalyst, time reaction as well as catalyst percentage. The trans-esterification process was carried out on microwave with lipid molar-methanol comparison of 1:10, microwave power, reaction time and catalyst composition were also varied. It was found that the addition of co-solvent (addition n-hexane) seems to give the best result in terms of yield, i.e. 54.19%, which was obtained at a 600-watt microwave power, reaction time of 40 min, and 2.5% catalyst concentration. The fatty acid consists of several major constituents, such as palmitic acid 84.81%, oleic acid 12.41% stearic acid 1.87% and linoleat 0.88%. It can be concluded from the study that the in-situ trans-esterification process is such an efficient method due to the short reaction time, less energy consumption and relatively efficient owing to the combined extraction and trans-esterification steps.