Sharif Digital Repository

In this research, direct conversion of wet algal biomass into biodiesel using supercritical methanol was studied. In this process, microalgal lipids simultaneously was extracted and converted to biodiesel under high pressure and temperature conditions without using any catalyst. Several experiments have been performed to optimize the methanol amount and it has been revealed that the best performance was achieved by using methanol/wet biomass ratio of 8:1. The effect of using various co-solvents in increasing the efficiency of the supercritical process was investigated. It has been shown that hexane was the most effective co-solvent and its optimal ratio respect to wet biomass was 6:1. The... 

In this research, a two-stage process consisting of cultivation in nutrient rich and nitrogen starvation conditions was employed to enhance lipid production in Chlorella vulgaris algal biomass. The effect of supplying different organic and inorganic carbon sources on cultivation behavior was investigated. During nutrient sufficient condition (stage I), the highest biomass productivity of 0.158. ±. 0.011. g/L/d was achieved by using sodium bicarbonate followed by 0.130. ±. 0.013, 0.111. ±. 0.005 and 0.098. ±. 0.003. g/L/d for sodium acetate, carbon dioxide and molasses, respectively. Cultivation under nitrogen starvation process (stage II) indicated that the lipid and fatty acid content...