A Review Paper: Potential of Microalgae as Source of Biofuel in India

Abstract: – Day by day, our existing fossil fuels are depleting. There is an urgent need to focus and find out the alternative and renewable sources for sustainable environment, which can substitute the petroleum derived fuels. In the past few years, biodiesel has come up as a potential alternative source of energy. Biodiesel feedstocks derived from microalgae have emerged as one of the most promising alternative sources of lipid for use in biodiesel production in India. Second generation microalgal systems have the advantage that they can produce different algal species with different potential for the production of biodiesel, bioethanol, biomethane and biohydrogen. The present paper gives an overview of the potential of microalgae biodiesel in India. The paper discussed about fundamental aspects of various algal species that have been found to have high oil (or lipid) content. In this regard, we have examined the chemical composition and suitability of microalgal oil for synthesis of biodiesel by transesterification reaction. Finally the review research paper covers the approach for making algal biodiesel more economically and competitive with petrodiesel.

Keywords: Biodiesel, Petroleum derived fuels, Microalgae, India, Feedstock, Lipid, and Transesterification I.

INTRODUCTION

Day by day increasing demand of fuels for different purposes as transport, agriculture etc has been created to think for other alternative sources for sustainable development [20]. According to an estimate, 70% of the total petroleum is only consumed by automobiles. This is an alarming stage that the country definitely is in problem because of increasing demand of transportation (Grow diesel consortium news circular, 2008). Petroleum products consumed during the period of 2011-12 in India was 147.995 million metric tonnes (MMT). According to annual report (2011-12) of Ministry of petroleum & Natural Gas, 171.73 MMT of crude oil was imported by India. This creates a heavy burden foreign exchange [15]. Table-1 and Graph-1 shows that the pattern of production of crude oil during the period 2004-05 to 2011-12. During this period, the production of crude oil has remained in the range 33 to 38 MMT with year to year variations. It has been analyzed that the production of 38.09 MMT crude oil during the year 2011-12 is about 1.08% higher than the actual crude oil production of 37.684 MMT during 2010-11.
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