BLG 351 Research: Sustainable Biofuel from Microalgae & Cyanobacteria

This research proposal investigates the potential of microalgae and cyanobacteria as a sustainable source of biofuel, addressing the growing demand for renewable energy and food. The proposal outlines a methodology for isolating, identifying, and cultivating high-lipid yielding microalgal strains from local natural habitats. It details the process of biofuel production through lipid extraction and transesterification, aiming for a commercially viable conversion ratio. The research highlights the advantages of microalgae, including lower land and water requirements compared to traditional biofuel sources, CO2 sequestration capabilities, and potential as a food and nutrient source, thus addressing the Water, Energy, and Food (WEF) nexus. The proposal concludes by emphasizing the need for further research to develop efficient and commercially viable techniques for biofuel production from microalgae.

Running head: BIOFUEL FROM MICROALGAE
Biofuel production from microalgae and cyanobacteria
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note:

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Abstract
Rapidly depleting fossil fuel and increasing food demand made human kind to look for new
alternatives. As a renewable energy source, biofuel from microalgae can viably replace the
fossil fuel. Although, biofuel can be derived from different biomass sources; biofuel derived
from microalgae and cyanobacteria is the most viable and sustainable option. Along with
that, microalgae require less land and water compared to plant extracted biofuel.
Furthermore, currently, microalgae are being used as high nutrient rich food source. Hence,
microalgae can help tackle the both current energy and food situation human kind is facing.
Regrettably, biofuel production from microalgae and cyanobacteria is yet to be a
commercially feasible process and further study and research is needed in this area.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Research methodology...............................................................................................................4
Cultivation media...................................................................................................................4
Sample collection...................................................................................................................4
Isolation of strain....................................................................................................................4
Identification of strain............................................................................................................4
Cultivation..............................................................................................................................5
Harvesting..............................................................................................................................5
Biofuel production.................................................................................................................5
Expected outcome......................................................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
With ever increasing population growth and living standard improvement, there is an
excessive demand of energy and food. Still today, most of our energy demand met by fossil
fuel like oil and coal, but the storage of fossil fuels are depleting in alarming rate (Abas,
Kalair & Khan, 2015). To counter this, biofuel has come to fore front as viable replacement
of fossil fuel (Milano. 2016). Biofuels can be segmented in three generations. First generation
of biofuel is extracted from edible biomass, second generation of biofuel is extracted from
non-edible biomass and third generation of biofuel is extracted from microalgae and
cyanobacteria (Ghosh et al., 2016). Percentage extraction of biofuel from biomass depends on
the lipid content of biomass species and microalgae (the term ‘microalgae’ here represents
both cyanobacteria and microalgae) have much higher lipid content compared to traditional
biomass. Depending on the species, micro algal biomass have a 10 -20 times higher yield of
biofuel compared to the vegetable oil and oleaginous seeds (Mubarak, Shaija & Suchithra,
2015). Additionally, microalgae have a much shorter harvesting cycle which is 20-30 days
depending on the species compared to other edible biomass (Collet et al., 2014). It is also
uses much less land in comparison with the traditional food crops. To cite one example, land
requirement for low lipid containing microalgae is 0.2 m2 year/kg biofuel while land
requirement for palm oil is 2 m2 year/kg biofuel (Gerbens‐Leenes et al., 2014). Food demand
is also ever increasing and thus, it can negate the food versus energy debate for land use as its
uses almost 10 times less land. Along with these, it can also help reduce the atmospheric CO2
emission which in turn will help to reduce greenhouse gas in the atmosphere (Premalatha,
Vasumathi & Sudhakar, 2014). Furthermore, studies have shown that microalgae are being
used as food source and high value nutrient source like proteins, pigments and carbohydrates
(Khanra et al., 2018). From the above discussion, it can be seen that microalgae can replace
fossil fuel as viable renewable energy source, consumes less land and water so that food can

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be cultivated, help sequester CO2, and can also be used as food and nutrient source from the
lipid extracted biomass. Unfortunately, despite its several advantages there is no one effective
method or technique for biofuel production from microalgae. Therefore, this research
proposal aims to produce biofuel from microalgae in effective and efficient manner.
Research methodology
Cultivation media
BG-11 media will be used to culture the microalgae samples and standard
composition of the media will be used as mentioned in the studies (Marjakangas et al., 2015).
Sample collection
Microalgal sample will be collected from the local natural habitat such as ponds, lake
and moist undergrowths. Protective gears will be used at the time of sample collection.
Isolation of strain
Sample collected from natural habitat will be contaminated by bacteria and fungi.
Additionally, there might be more than one algal species. To get a single isolated species free
of any contamination, serial dilution and streaking techniques on agar plate will be performed
(Neofotis, 2016).
Identification of strain
Optical microscopy will be performed to study the morphological structure of the
isolated strain. After that genomic techniques like sequencing analysis will be performed to
accurately identify the strain (Thiriet-Rupert, 2016).

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Cultivation
Cultivation of the isolated strain will be performed in open system. A 5 litre and one
foot deep raceway pond will be used for cultivation. Cultivation will be performed in
ambience condition (Pawar, 2016).
Harvesting
To harvest biomass from the cultivated biomass flocculation method will be used.
Flocculation method will be performed with 2mol/L NaOH solution. After that the culture
media will be removed and washed with distilled water to remove the excess salt content. At
last, the biomass will be dried for 1 day by forced air circulation at 600C (Wan et al., 2015).
Biofuel production
Biofuel conversion from harvested will performed in traditional two step
transesterification method. The steps are: i) lipid extraction from microalgal biomass and ii)
conversion of extracted microalgal lipid into biofuel (Duran, Kumar & Sandhu, 2018).
Expected outcome
Expected outcome of this research proposal is that a high lipid yielding microalgal
strain will be isolated. The strain will be pure and contamination free. The conversion ratio
from microalgal lipid to biofuel will be in substantial amount so that the biofuel production
from microalgae can be a sustainable and feasible solution.
Conclusion
To summarize the above discussion, it can be said that microalgae has lots of potential
benefits. It can actually viably replace fossil fuel to solve energy crisis mankind about to face.
Along with that, to produce energy, humankind will not have to devote significant amount of
land for this purpose. Furthermore, microalgae can also be used as a food and nutrient source.

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Thus, microalgae can able to solve two branches of WEF nexus as it can be used as
renewable energy source as well as food source. Unfortunately, biofuel from microalgae is
still not commercially viable process. Hence, studying and devising efficient and
commercially viable technique of biofuel production from microalgae will help mankind in
earnest.

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References
Abas, N., Kalair, A., & Khan, N. (2015). Review of fossil fuels and future energy
technologies. Futures, 69, 31-49.
Collet, P., Lardon, L., Hélias, A., Bricout, S., Lombaert-Valot, I., Perrier, B., ... & Bernard,
O. (2014). Biodiesel from microalgae–Life cycle assessment and recommendations
for potential improvements. Renewable Energy, 71, 525-533.
Duran, S. K., Kumar, P., & Sandhu, S. S. (2018). A review on microalgae strains, cultivation,
harvesting, biodiesel conversion and engine implementation. Biofuels, 1-12.
Gerbens‐Leenes, P. W., Xu, L., Vries, G. J., & Hoekstra, A. Y. (2014). The blue water
footprint and land use of biofuels from algae. Water resources research, 50(11),
8549-8563.
Ghosh, A., Khanra, S., Mondal, M., Halder, G., Tiwari, O. N., Saini, S., ... & Gayen, K.
(2016). Progress toward isolation of strains and genetically engineered strains of
microalgae for production of biofuel and other value added chemicals: a
review. Energy Conversion and Management, 113, 104-118.
Khanra, S., Mondal, M., Halder, G., Tiwari, O. N., Gayen, K., & Bhowmick, T. K. (2018).
Downstream processing of microalgae for pigments, protein and carbohydrate in
industrial application: A review. Food and Bioproducts Processing.
Marjakangas, J. M., Chen, C. Y., Lakaniemi, A. M., Puhakka, J. A., Whang, L. M., & Chang,
J. S. (2015). Selecting an indigenous microalgal strain for lipid production in
anaerobically treated piggery wastewater. Bioresource technology, 191, 369-376.

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Milano, J., Ong, H. C., Masjuki, H. H., Chong, W. T., Lam, M. K., Loh, P. K., & Vellayan,
V. (2016). Microalgae biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuel for power
generation. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 58, 180-197.
Mubarak, M., Shaija, A., & Suchithra, T. V. (2015). A review on the extraction of lipid from
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Neofotis, P., Huang, A., Chang, W., Joseph, F., & Polle, J. E. (2016). Microalgae strain
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Pawar, S. (2016). Effectiveness mapping of open raceway pond and tubular photobioreactors
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Premalatha, M., Vasumathi, K. K., & Sudhakar, K. (2014). Sequestration and Biofuel
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Thiriet-Rupert, S., Carrier, G., Chénais, B., Trottier, C., Bougaran, G., Cadoret, J. P., ... &
Saint-Jean, B. (2016). Transcription factors in microalgae: genome-wide prediction
and comparative analysis. BMC genomics, 17(1), 282.
Wan, C., Alam, M. A., Zhao, X. Q., Zhang, X. Y., Guo, S. L., Ho, S. H., ... & Bai, F. W.
(2015). Current progress and future prospect of microalgal biomass harvest using
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