Microalgae Cultivation for Simultaneous Treatment of Municipal Wastewater and Biofuel Feedstock Production

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Ebrahimian Kafshaei, Atefeh (Author) ; Vossoughi, Manoochehr (Supervisor) ; Kariminia, Hamid Reza (Supervisor)

Abstract

Depletion of fossil fuels and their price increase, world is going to face critical energy challenges in the near future. Thereforefinding proper replacements for fossil fuels is inevitable. On the other hand, releasing of huge amount of wastewater into environment imposes serious nvironmental threats. Microalgae can be a potential alternative for biological wastewater treatment as well as fuel production. Microalgae grown in wastewater can eliminate remaining nitrogen and phosphorous. The gorwn biomass can be used for biofuel production afterward. Microalgae can also decrease the amount of greenhouse gas through the consumption of CO2 as energy sources. In this study, nutrient removal from...

Experimental Study and Process Design of Oil Extraction from Microalgae Chlorella Vulgaris to Produce Biodiesel

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Hassani, Iman (Author) ; Farhadi, Fathollah (Supervisor) ; Vossoughi, Manoochehr (Supervisor)

Abstract

The experimental investigation of biodiesel production stages from microalgae especially lipid extraction stage was conducted in this thesis. The optimal rate of biomass productivity and optimal method in lipid extraction for biodiesel production was determined.
A photobioreactor was designed and constructed to cultivate microalgae C. Vulgaris according to researchers’ works and obtained results in this study. The process parameters were examined and the optimal parameters were obtained according to the necessary tests which were carried out. Then, several methods of lipid extraction using different solvents such as chloroform, methanol, and n-hexane were investigated and the best...

Experimental and Theoretical Study of the Transesterification Products Extraction in Biodiesel Production

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Hakim, Maziar (Author) ; Vossoughi, Manoochehr (Supervisor) ; Rashtchian, Davood (Supervisor)

Abstract

The experimental investigation of biodiesel production stages from microalgae especially biomass production stage was conducted in this thesis. The optimal rate of biomass productivity was determined.
A photobioreactor was designed and constructed to cultivate microalgae C. Vulgaris according to researchers’ works and obtained results in this study. The process parameters were examined and the optimal parameters were obtained according to the necessary tests which were carried out.
According to the results, the optimal condition for growing of microalgae was obtained with aeration of 6 lit/min with 3% CO2, and CO2 injection regime of 45 sec. injection and 3 min. of stoppage. A rapid...

Experimental Studies on Recovery Process of Microalgae using Electric Current and Membrane

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Sabermanesh, Mohammad Hossein (Author) ; Vosughi, Manoochehr (Supervisor) ; Moslemi, Mohammad Reza (Supervisor)

Abstract

Microalgae is a major problem in water resources due to its adverse influence on water treatment process and water quality like color, odor and taste. In addition microalgae removal is an important process in food and pharmacy industry. Electrocoagulation is a potential method for microalgae removal. Another method for microalgae recovery is membrane treatment. This study is focusing on using both methods separately and simultaneously. To achieve this, the removal of Chlorella Vulgaris, a fresh water microalgae, was used in experiments. In first phase the experiments were solely on electrocoagulation and the effect of several parameters including current density, electrocoagulation duration,...

Experimental and Theoretical Study of the Lipid Extraction from Wet Microalgae for Biodiesel Production

, M.Sc. Thesis Sharif University of Technology Malekzadeh, Mohammad (Author) ; Rashtchian, Davood (Supervisor) ; Vossoughi, Manoochehr (Supervisor)

Abstract

In this study, different stages of biodiesel production from microalgae were investigated, specifically the extraction step.Various cultivation methods were also studied among which cultivation under stress was the best. Different carbon sources were also investigated to achieve highest growth. Sodium acetate with complete growth was achieved after 8 days with 6.22% fatty acid recovery. Different mixtures of solvents were compared with Blye and Dier method. Results showed that the mixture of hexane and methanol with crude lipid extraction of 15% and fatty acid recovery of 3.97% were chosen as the solvent mixture of equilibria experiments.Organic solvent composed of hexane (non-polar...