Leveraging microalga feedstock for biofuel production and wasteland reclamation using remote sensing and ex situ experimentation

Mayur Mausoom Phukan, Nabajit Hazarika, Plaban Bora, Tapanjit Borah and Bolin Kumar Konwar

Renewable Energy, 2020, vol. 159, issue C, 973-981

Abstract: Biofuel production becomes a sustainable developmental strategy, when wastelands are reprocessed as prospective mass culture sites (PMCS) for microalgae feedstock. Remote Sensing (RS) data and field visits were used to delineate eutrophic water bodies for PMCS. The floodplains of the Brahmaputra River Valley of Assam, India, were selected as PMCS and were defined using RS data. A green alga of the genus Parachlorella was isolated from an algal bloom present in the drainage system, of Tezpur University, Assam, India. The species was cultured in representative water samples from the PMCS and growth was monitored in open laboratory conditions against the control. The microalgal biomass was characterized and subjected to in situ transesterification. The fuel properties such as viscosity, density, calorific value and cetane number (CN) were determined to assess the fuel quality. The results showed the biodiesel fuel properties were within the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) purview. Additionally, the thermo-chemical conversion and subsequent characterization underscored the feasibility of bio-oil production from open laboratory culture of microalgae. This study highlights the practicability of combining RS data and experimental appraisal for cost effective, environment friendly and sustainable biofuel production, from microalgae cultured in wasteland PMCS.

Keywords: Biofuel; Microalgae; Remote sensing (RS); Eutrophic; PMCS; Brahmaputra River Valley (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148120309538
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:159:y:2020:i:c:p:973-981

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2020.06.047

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().