Microwave-Enhanced In Situ Transesterification of Algal Biomass to Biodiesel (original) (raw)

Microwave-enhanced in situ transesterification for algal biodiesel production can be considered as a green process and a preferred method as it increases reaction rates, reduces energy consumption and extractivetransesterification time, and produces a significant yield of product with less by-product formation. This process enables simultaneous extraction of lipids from algal biomass and efficiently transesterifies them into crude biodiesel. In this chapter, emphasis on the optimization of microwave-enhanced methods for algal biodiesel is presented with catalytic and non-catalytic approaches. The influence of process parameters on fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) yields under microwave "controlled power" and "controlled temperature" conditions is discussed. A response surface methodology (RSM) is applied to design the experiments and optimizes the process parameters . A novel integrated non-catalytic approach for direct conversion of algal biomass to fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEEs) under microwave-mediated supercritical ethanol (SCE) conditions is demonstrated. The reaction mechanism, experimental protocol, statistical analysis and experimental design, energy consumption of these presented processes are discussed in detail. This simple in situ microwave-enhanced transesterification process has the potential to provide an energyefficient and cost effective route for sustainable algal biodiesel production.