Transesterification of Microalgae from Food Waste via Acid Catalyst for Biodiesel Production

Abstract

Recently, numerous studies have presented the potential of various feedstock of biodiesel catalysed with acid catalysts and its performance. This study examines the potential of microalgae from food waste for biodiesel production by a homogeneous acid catalyst in a transesterification reaction. Initially, lipid was extracted from the microalgae using the microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) method. Then, the lipid was transesterified using a sulphuric acid catalyst under different conditions to decide the optimum condition. About 50% of the lipid was extracted from the microalgae when 400 W of microwave power was used for 15 minutes. The biodiesel yield of 76% has been attained from transesterifying the extracted lipid with methanol using 9:1 of methanol to oil molar ratio, 2.5 wt% of catalyst dosage for 3 hours at 65°C. Overall, this study has shown the potential of microalgae from food waste as one of the options for biodiesel’s feedstock catalysed by acid.
 Keywords: Biodiesel, food waste, microalgae, transesterification, acid catalyst, microwave assisted extraction (MAE)