To many, algae are the pesky product of eutrophication in local lakes and ponds. In the laboratory, algae is a promising competitor for renewable resources of biodiesel. Algae not only ingest excess carbon emissions from the atmosphere, but, they also convert it into energy dense lipids, which can be harvested, and then transformed into biodiesel through process of transesterification. Despite the advantages, the amount of biodiesel produced is not significant enough to be considered a worthwhile option. Before the fuel industry can accept algae farming as a worthy alternative to fossil fuels, the reason for harvesting must be maximized further. The overarching goal of this project is to make algal lipid extraction more efficient by determining the ideal growing conditions of the algae species Chlorella Vulgaris and therefore maximize the output of purified biodiesel. It explores ways to effectively quantify and compare the algal lipid yield to the various controlled algal growth media and environments. With the data analyzed from the different media, the densest algal lipids are then used for the synthesis of biodiesel. Testing involves a) the interconnectivity between different algal lipid densities and growing mediums, b) the efficiency of the transesterification of the biodiesel and c) the process of spectral analysis for impurities and overall quality of the biodiesel.

Infrared Spectroscopy of dried lipids that were grown in BBM. The peak at 1742.58 cm-1 indicates the carbonyl stretch of the lipids and the peaks around 2900 cm -1 indicate the presence of C-H as expected.

Sarah Mertson

Appearances