Production of algal oil from power plant algae

ABSTRACT

Algae growing in the thermal power plant environment are considered as waste for the power industry. But the algal biomass could act as efficient CO₂-bio-sequester as they are adapted to grow under high CO₂ concentration and the algal oil extracted from those algae is a cheap source of bio-diesel or green energy, thus mitigating the environmental pollution and conversion of ‘waste-to-wealth’. The present study aims at the production of bio-oil from a macro-alga, Pithophora varia collected and identified from water bodies of a thermal-power-plant in India. The oil productivity of the alga can be correlated with the biomass growth. The alga was cultivated in Erlenmeyer-flasks with external CO₂ supplementation of 0.15 mole fraction in air. The light intensity 10,897 lux was incident on the flask’s wall when placed under sunlight for 8 h. Simultaneously, oil yield of 18.7% has been measured before subjecting the alga to the growth and starvation phase. An increase in oil-yield was measured on day 9 for both growth (26.2%) and starvation phases (29.3%). During growth phase, initiation of conversion of reserve food materials to lipid granules advocates for the oil yield. But the increment in lipid productivity during the starvation phase might have resulted due to nutrient deficiency and initiation of the stimulation of lipid-synthetic pathways towards the formation of triacylglceride.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Pithophora varia
• macro algae
• bio-oil
• power plant algae
• lipid productivity

Acknowledgement

The authors gratefully acknowledge Dr B. K. Sinha, Principal, P.K. Roy Memorial College, Dhanbad, for providing various laboratory facilities for our present investigation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).