Integration process of biodiesel production from filamentous oleaginous microalgae Tribonema minus

Biodiesel production from microalgae has been receiving considerable attention. Past studies mainly relied on tiny sized single-cell oleaginous microalgal species, the biodiesel based on filamentous oleaginous microalgae was rarely reported. Thus, integrated process of biodiesel production from filamentous oleaginous microalgal strain Tribonema minus was studied in this work. The filamentous microalgae was cultivated for 21 days in 40 L glass panel, microalgae cells was harvested by DAF without any flocculants after the lipid content was 50.23%. After that, total lipid was extracted by subcritical ethanol from wet algal paste and 44.55% of crude lipid was triacylglycerols. Two-step catalytic conversion of pre-esterification and transesterification was adopted to convert the crude algal oil to biodiesel. The conversion rate of triacylglycerols reached 96.52% under the methanol to oil molar ratio of 12:1 during catalysis with 2% potassium hydroxide at 65°C for 30 min. The biodiesel product from T. minus conformed to Chinese National Standards.