title: Development of an oven drying protocol to improve biodiesel production for an indigenous chlorophycean microalga Scenedesmus sp.
abstract: Drying of wet algal biomass is a major bottleneck in viable commercial production of the microalgal biodiesel. In the present investigation, an oven drying protocol was standardized for drying of wet Scenedesmus biomass at 60, 80 and 100°C with initial sample thickness of 5.0, 7.5 and 10.0mm. The optimum drying temperature was found to be 80°C with a maximum lipid yield of 425.0±5.9mgg(-1) at 15h drying time for 5.0mm thick samples with 0.033kWh power consumption. Partial drying at 80°C up to 10% residual moisture content was efficient showing 93% lipid recovery with 8h drying and a power consumption of 0.017kWh. Scenedesmus biomass was also found to be rich in saturated and mono-unsaturated fatty acids. Thus, the drying protocol demonstrates its suitability to improve the downstream processing of biodiesel production by significantly lowering the power consumption and the drying time.
authors.affiliation: Agricultural and Food Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, India.
authors.forename: Sourav Kumar
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Bagchi
authors.affiliation: Agricultural and Food Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, India.
authors.forename: Pavuluri Srinivasa
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.affiliation: Agricultural and Food Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, India. Electronic address: nm@agfe.iitkgp.ernet.in.
authors.forename: Nirupama
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mallick
mesh_terms: D056804:Biofuels; D018533:Biomass; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry; D008055:Lipids / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D058086:Microalgae / Q000737:chemistry / Q000254:growth & development; D044444:Scenedesmus / Q000737:chemistry / Q000254:growth & development; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D005227:Fatty Acids; D008055:Lipids
keywords: Drying temperature; Fatty acids; Moisture content; Partial drying; Scenedesmus biomass