In order to produce biodiesel from microalgae lipids, the later must be priory extracted. The main lipid extraction techniques are the use of chemical solvents, supercritical CO2, physicochemical, biochemical and direct transesterification. Chemical solvents extraction Chemical solvents method is by far the most commonly used, but less effective when microalgae are still wet (Samorì et … Read More

Finding new energy resources to compensate the decrease of the world petroleum reserves is an important challenge. The estimation of the world crude oil reserves is a difficult task because it is influenced by political, economic and technological factors (Pirog, 2005). The proven oil reserves represent the amount of petroleum that could be obtained from … Read More

Thermochemical biomass conversion involves processes at much higher temperatures and generally higher pressures than those found in biochemical conversion systems. Key intrinsic characteristics distinguishing thermochemical from biochemical biofuels are the flexibility in feedstocks that can be accommodated with thermochemical processing and the diversity of finished fuels that can be produced. Thermochemical production of biofuels begins … Read More

The development of photosynthetic microbes that produce lipids or hydrocarbons also has great potential for biofuels production. While plant production of useable biomass is unlikely to exceed an overall solar conversion efficiency of 1-2 percent, algae can convert solar power at efficiencies in excess of 10 percent. A combination of anaerobic and aerobic microbial processes … Read More

The first generation biofuels are those that are characterized by mature commercial markets and well understood technologies3. Some examples are sugarcane ethanol in Brazil, corn ethanol in the United States, oilseed rape biodiesel in Germany, and palm oil biodiesel in Malaysia. The development and use of first generation biofuels are encouraged by the desire to … Read More

The first and most important advantage of MHF is that it is generally cheaper than biodiesel and has the potential to be cheaper than diesel fuel. Two factors have significant impact on the price of biodiesel: first, the price of the raw material, which is plant oil; and second, the prices of the chemicals used … Read More

The interest in biodiesel as an alternative transportation fuel stems mainly from its renewable, domestic production, its safe, clean-burning properties, and its compatibility with existing diesel engines. Biodiesel can be blended with petroleum diesel in any percentage. The percentages are designated as B1 for a blend containing 1% biodiesel and 99% petroleum diesel, B20 for … Read More

responsible for the popularity of the transesterification method for reducing the viscosity related problems of plant oils. The popularity of methyl esters has contributed to the term “biodiesel” now usually referring to plant oil esters and not neat plant Oils. It was shown that in homogeneous catalysis, alkali catalysis is a much more rapid process … Read More

The feedstock comprising a mixture of various waste plant oils recovered from restaurants and other sources is fed into a vessel with metal filter to remove undesirable materials. The filtered oil accumulates at the bottom of the vessel and is transferred by a gear pump to the Feed Tank up to the level of about … Read More

The process of biodiesel production involves two phases. The first phase is the extraction of crude oil from seeds and the second is the transesterification of the crude oil into biodiesel. The biodiesel extraction process involves the use of machines to extract the oil from the seed. This produces crude jatropha oil, and hull and … Read More