Duel Bio-Fuel and Bio-Solvent as Biodiesel and Bio-Ethanol from Algal Oil and its Biomass Residues Using Bioprocess Technology

Biomass is plant or animal derived source of material that can be converted into different forms of bioenergy and biosolvent using different biotechnological procedures. Biomass is biodegradable, sustainable, economic sources as well as renewable and outstanding energy and biomaterial resource for the manufacturing industries like bio-plastics, bio-film, biomaterials, bio-chemicals, bio-fuels, bio-electricity, bio-solvent in the agro-industry, pharmaceuticals, biomedical and bioengineering aspect. The study was conducted to investigate the biodiesel and bioethanol yield and quality with different alkaline-acid catalysts and fermentation technology using algal oil extracted from algae and its biomass residues. Algal species, Spirogyra was used to produce biodiesel from algal oil applying the alkaline and acid transesterification process and bioethanol from algal biomass residues. In biodiesel production, single homogenous catalyst (KOH) and heterogenous mixture of catalysts (KOH+NaOH+H 2 SO 4 ) were treated to obtain a high quality biodiesel fuel. The highest biodiesel yield of 96.9% was achieved dealing 1:4 volumetric oil-tomethanol proportions by 1.5% mixture of catalysts (NaOH+KOH+H 2 SO 4 ). The lowest biodiesel yield was found 95.8% by 1.5% of single catalyst (KOH). There was no significant difference in the viscosity of the biodiesel produced between the single and mixture of catalysts. However, the total acid number and metal content differed significantly between the homogenous and heterogenous catalysts of produced biodiesel. In bioethanol production, bioethanol yield was found (15%) higher in the cellulase enzyme than in lipase enzyme (11%) fermentation. The results conclude that biodiesel and bioethanol obtained from algal oil and its residual biomass were of good quality that could be practiced as a source of diesel and bioethanol fuel and solvent.