Culture and biofuel producing efficacy of marine microalgae Dunaliella salina and Nannochloropsis sp

Shenbaga Devi, A., P. Santhanam, V. Rekha, S. Ananth, B. Balaji Prasath, R. Nandakumar, S. Jeyanthi and S. Dinesh Kumar Culture and biofuel producing efficacy of marine microalgae Dunaliella salina and Nannochloropsis sp. J. Algal Biomass Utln. 2012, 3 (4): 38–4 Abstract Biodiesel from oil crops, waste cooking oil and animal fat cannot realistically satisfy even a small fraction of the existing demand for transport fuels. As demonstrated here, microalgae appear to be the only source of renewable biodiesel that is capable of meeting the global demand for transport fuels. Marine microalgae Dunaliella salina and Nannochloropsis sp. was cultured in in-door and out-door systems and harvested biomass was utilized for biodiesel fuel production. The direct transesterification of microalgae biomass shows good biodiesel yield where Dunaliella salina yielded 66.6 % and Nannochloropsis sp. 68.5% respectively. It is inferred that the fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) such as palmitic acid (16:0), oleic acid (18:1) and linolenic acid (18:3) which found in microalgae are accountable for yielding more biodiesel than other oil crops. It is understood that, the marine microalgae Nannochloropsis sp and Dunaliella salina were considered as promising feedstock for biodiesel production.