Production of biodiesel from Coelastrella sp. microalgae

Microalgae have a wide area of usage and one of them it can be used for biodiesel production. In biodiesel production, lipids containing triglyceride or free fatty acid are converted into methyl ester through trans/esterification reactions. Lipids from microalgae can be extracted by acetone and dimethyl carbonate using homogenizer. Esterification of the lipids was investigated using various catalysts and source of methyl group. Activity of homogeneous catalyst such as HCl and H2SO4 and heterogeneous catalysts such as montmorillonit K-10 and ledgestone was investigated. Moreover, methanol and dimethyl carbonate as source of methyl group were also studied. Among of catalysts with methanol as source of methyl group, it was found that yield of crude biodiesel derived from Choelestrella Sp. microalgae was high over H2SO4 catalyst. On the other hand, over H2SO4 catalyst using dimethyl carbonate as source of methyl group, yield of crude biodiesel significant increase. However, FAME composition of crude biodiesel...