Biodiesel Production from Microalgae through Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Extraction

Abstract

The microalgae has been demonstrated to be the potential source of renewable biodiesel that is capable of meeting the global demand for transport fuels. The Chlorella sp. T-89 which is separated from domestic algae with easy-culturing and the high lipid content was used to be an investigated material for biodiesel production. Supercritical carbon dioxide fluid was applied to extract the microalgae lipid through the equipment with automatically controlling of temperature and pressure. Also the technique of synchronized fractional extraction with the different chemical compounds to extract the lipid ingredients from the microalgae was employed to examine the influences of the lipid extraction quantity under various operation conditions. Box-Behnken design and response surface methodology (RSM) were applied to find the optimal extraction/purification suitability of the microalgae. An empirically correlated formulation is obtained in mass production condition by using the experimentally statistical models. Hence, this study can establish the most suitable technique for the extraction and purification of biodiesel from microalgae for mass production condition, since it can raise the unit production of the microalgae lipids, to shorten the time of product development, to lower the production costs and to improve the industry competition ability.