Cultivation of microalgae Chlorella sp. as raw material for biodiesel production

• Grant number: 12/18006-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2012
• End date: July 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Chemical Engineering
• Principal Investigator: Messias Borges Silva
• Grantee: Fernanda di Giaimo Martinez
• Host Institution: Escola de Engenharia de Lorena (EEL). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Lorena , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Due to the increasing call for the development of fuels from renewable sources in recent years, microalgae have been gaining attention as a promising source of biomass for biofuel production. Thus the focus of this project is to study the cultivation of a marine species of the genus Chlorella microalgae under controlled conditions in order to maximize production of biomass and its percentage in the lipid composition to evaluate their potential as raw material for the production of biodiesel. The factors to be controlled in cultivation are: flow of CO2 concentration of NaNO3, light intensity and path length. The cultivation will be assessed by the production of biomass and lipid percentage and the effects of control parameters will be studied through the statistical Taguchi method. The experiments use an L8 Taguchi orthogonal array with four factors operating at two levels each, performed in triplicate. (AU)