Abstract

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF BIOFUEL PRODUCTION FROM CHLORELLA VULGARIS WITH DIFFERENT WATER SAMPLES

Murugan Karuppasamy, M. A. Mohideen and M. Abdul Salam*

ABSTRACT

This study investigated, the production and characterization of biofuelsproduced from the freshwater microalgae; Chlorella vulgaris.Freshwater of different water samples were sampled from Tirunelvelidistrict in India for isolation and identification of algal species.Chlorella vulgaris was identified under a light microscope and isolatedrepeated sub-culturing on BG 11 media. This work aims to investigatebiofuels for diesel engines produced on a lab-scale from the freshwatermicroalgae Chlorella vulgaris. For lab scale, the emulsion fuelexperiments were conducted for the culture temperature fixed at 22 ±30C using the microalgal strain of Chlorella vulgaris was grown indifferent water samples such as municipal drinking water, rejectionwater and Thamirabharani river water. The physico-chemicalproperties such as pH, total dissolved solids, alkalinity, calcium,magnesium, chloride, turbidity and hardness of the collected watersamples were indicated that the river water contains all essentialnutrients for the growth of Chlorella vulgaris. The present study reveals that, biomass contentof isolated microalgae Chlorella vulgaris was high in the range of 1.4 g/l in Thamirabharaniriver water followed by in the range of 1.1 g/l in municipal water and 0.9 in RO rejection water.Cultivation conditions like temperature, pH, nutrient quantity, salinity and aerating are themajor factors that influence photosynthesis activity and behaviour of the microalgae growthrate. In this aspect of study, we present an overview about the effect of cultivation conditions on microalgae growth.

Keywords: Chlorella vulgaris, Different water samples, BG 11 medium, Algal biomass, Physico-chemical parameters and Growth parameters.