Biomass utilization of waste algal consortium for extraction of algal oil

Biofuels are considered to be the best way to reduce green house gas emission and alternative to pollutant fossil fuels. At present research is being conducted by culturing algae to produce different fuels like biodiesel, bioethanol etc. Using algae to produce biodiesel would be the only viable method to replace the need of gasoline used for automotive today. Experiments were planned to produce sustainable alternative fuel energy (algal oil) from naturally available waste algal consortium. Thus using algal blooms served two purposes firstly bioremediation by reducing eutrophication caused by algal blooms and secondly an attempt to produce a cheap alternative algal oil. The use of algal blooms for algal oil extraction is not reported till now. Combination of mechanical and chemical method gave varied results. Steam distillation using Clevenger apparatus gave better results in comparison to the other method used. It proved to be a cheaper method of oil extraction and not reported till now. Lipid tests conducted for the presence of lipid contents in the sample were positive. That confirms the presence of oil in the extracted sample. Therefore, an attempt was done for the use of waste natural resource to the purposeful way.