An overview on biodiesel fuel production from algae

Abstract

Biodiesel fuel has emerged as a viable substitute for petroleum diesel and as a component to mitigate greenhouse gas emission. Biodiesel is biodegradable, less CO2 and NOx emissions and can be obtained from renewable sources. The fuel can be made easily from either virgin or waste cooking oil such as palm, soybean, canola, rice bran, sunflower, corn oil, fish oil and chicken fat. Those feedstocks are still estimated compete with the food consumptions in the future. Presently, research is being done on algae as one of alternative feedstock which are particularly rich in oils (up to 60% of their mass) and whose yield per hectare is considerably higher than that of palm (7 to 31 times). The objective of the paper gives a brief overview on biodiesel fuel production from algae to further undertake significant research. It also describes the common method of production which is basecatalyzed transesterification and some requirements of that are needed in order to achieve high-yield algal oil production. Algae require primarily three components to grow: sunlight, CO2 water and Indonesia has appropriate geographical condition that could support the growth and production of algae, therefore it is expected to introduce algae as potential feedstock for biodiesel production. In practice however, while algal oil certainly appears promising, it should be pointed out that lots more aspects need to be analysed and further experimentations to be done before one can be sure of algal oil being a worthy substitute for petro-diesel.