Biodiesel production from microalgal isolates of southern Pakistan and quantification of FAMEs by GC-MS/MS analysis
Background Microalgae have attracted major interest as a sustainable source for biodiesel production on commercial scale. This paper describes the screening of six microalgal species, Scenedesmus quadricauda, Scenedesmus acuminatus, Nannochloropsis sp ., Anabaena sp ., Chlorella sp . and Oscillatori...
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Published in | BMC chemistry Vol. 6; no. 1; p. 149 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Cham
Springer International Publishing
05.12.2012
Springer Nature B.V BioMed Central Ltd BioMed Central BMC |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Background
Microalgae have attracted major interest as a sustainable source for biodiesel production on commercial scale. This paper describes the screening of six microalgal species,
Scenedesmus quadricauda, Scenedesmus acuminatus, Nannochloropsis
sp
., Anabaena
sp
., Chlorella
sp
.
and
Oscillatoria
sp.
,
isolated from fresh and marine water resources of southern Pakistan for biodiesel production and the GC-MS/MS analysis of their fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs).
Results
Growth rate, biomass productivity and oil content of each algal species have been investigated under autotrophic condition. Biodiesel was produced from algal oil by acid catalyzed transesterification reaction and resulting fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) content was analyzed by GC/MS. Fatty acid profiling of the biodiesel, obtained from various microalgal oils showed high content of C-16:0, C-18:0,
cis
-Δ
9
C-18:1,
cis
-Δ
11
C-18:1 (except
Scenedesmus quadricauda
) and 10-hydroxyoctadecanoic (except
Scenedesmus acuminatus).
Absolute amount of C-14:0, C-16:0 and C-18:0 by a validated GC-MS/MS method were found to be 1.5-1.7, 15.0-42.5 and 4.2-18.4 mg/g, respectively, in biodiesel obtained from various microalgal oils. Biodiesel was also characterized in terms of cetane number, kinematic viscosity, density and higher heating value and compared with the standard values.
Conclusion
Six microalgae of local origin were screened for biodiesel production. A method for absolute quantification of three important saturated fatty acid methyl esters (C-14, C-16 and C-18) by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS), using multiple reactions monitoring (MRM) mode, was employed for the identification and quantification of biodiesels obtained from various microalgal oils. The results suggested that locally found microalgae can be sustainably harvested for the production of biodiesel. This offers the tremendous economic opportunity for an energy-deficient nation. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 1752-153X 1752-153X 2661-801X |
DOI: | 10.1186/1752-153X-6-149 |