Four microalgae, obtained from different brackish and fresh water sources within the state of Louisianas Southeast region, were evaluated for their potential use in the production of biodiesel. The microorganisms were isolated and identified using genomic DNA, and 16S rRNA or 18S rRNA gene amplification followed by sequencing. The resultant sequences were compared with those available on the NCBI website database through the BLAST bioinformatic tool. The results showed high correlation with known nucleotide sequence identities at 99 % with Synechococcus sp., 98 % with Sellaphora pupula, 99 % with Chlorella sorokiniana, 99 % with Scenedesmus abundans, and 99 % with Chlorella vulgaris (control).
The fatty acid profiles of the identified organisms grown using 5 % CO2 aeration into the growth media were evaluated and were found to be different to the control group (0.037 % CO2). In Synechococcus sp., total fatty acids (TFA) decreased from 20.63 g kg-1 to 17.62 g kg-1 dry biomass with the appearance of C18:2 and C18:3, which were absent in the control. TFA from Sellaphora pupula decreased from 54.8 g kg-1 to 24.4 g kg-1 dry biomass and contained the greatest C16:1. The extracted TFA from Scenedesmus abundans increased from 14.14 g kg-1 to 31.63 g kg-1 and displayed the highest content of C18:1. For Chlorella vulgaris UTEX 259, TFA content increased from 15.14 g kg-1 to 47.83 g kg-1, and 50 % of that total was C18:3. The TFA content from Chlorella sorokiniana decreased from 29.82 g kg-1 to 23.99 g kg-1; however, it had a lower C18:3 which allowed for a balanced fatty acid profile in terms of cetane number, oxidative stability, viscosity and low temperature conditions. The aforementioned conditions, plus owning the best biomass productivity when using 5 % CO2, deemed Chlorella sorokiniana as the best candidate of the strains evaluated for the production of biodiesel.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-01042012-150704 |
| Date | 24 January 2012 |
| Creators | Moreno, Reynaldo |
| Contributors | Aita, Giovanna, Day, Donal, Xu, Zhimin |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-01042012-150704/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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