earticle

영어

In this study, the advanced biodiesel (namely green diesel) production from microalgal biomass is presented. Overall process consists of microalgae selection, harvesting/dewatering, lipid extraction, and green diesel conversion. Forty seven microalgal strains (Chlorella sp., Scenedesmus sp., and Nannochloris sp.) collected from Korean Collection for Type Cultures (KTCC) were tested for coal-fired flue gas application and 3 strains were selected based on volumetric biomass and lipid productivities under various cultivation conditions. The microalgae were cultivated by various transparent film photobioreactor systems with coal-fired flue gas under out-door conditions and its areal lipid productivity was estimated to be ~4.2 L lipid/m2/year. The lipid content was measured as FAME (fatty acid methyl ester) by GC. Lipid components from microalgal biomass were extracted by two-step pyrolysis process and converted into hydrocarbon (green diesel) by catalytic decarboxylation. The harvesting/dewatering from the overall microalgal green diesel production process might be a critical step in terms of cost, energy consumption and water recycling, and further investigation is under progress.