Cultivation of Microalgae Monoraphidium sp., in the Plant Pilot the Grand Valle Bio Energy, for Biodiesel Production

Abstract

At present, Brazil imports approximately 11 billion liters/year of diesel. With the interruption of the works in the new Petrobras refineries, the projection is that by 2025 this volume will increase to 24.2 billion liters of diesel/year. In this sense, the biodiesel factory Grand Valle Bio Energy Ltda., located in the state of Rio de Janeiro, in conjunction with the FAPERJ makes some investments in technology development for the cultivation and use of microalgae as an alternative raw material in the production of biodiesel. Based on arguments previously said, this work presents the results of the microalgae cultivation Monoraphidium sp. in photobioreactors the pilot plant of the company. The installation with an area of 120 m2 is included with 2 open photobioreactors of type falling film (20 m × 1 m), with a cascade of 18mm and capacity of 4000 L. The lineage cultivated is selected from previous ecophysiological studies that are identified as promising for biodiesel production by having a high potential for the production of lipids. This lineage is maintained at collection of the stock of cultures Laboratory of Green Technologies of the School of Chemistry/ UFRJ. The cultivation was performed in means ASM-1 (Gorham et al., 1964), initial pH 8.0, with aeration and circulation average of 8 hours a day during 19 days. The culture was started with an inoculum of 1 × 107 cel/ml. The lipid production was determined in two phases of growth: on day 4 (exponential phase) and 15 day (stationary phase). For the determination and quantification of lipid content, two different methods were assessed for a sample of biomass, submitted to the same processes the separation and drying. The results showed the methodology of Bligh & Dyer with modifications as the most efficient in extracting lipids. The total lipid content of the biomass Monoraphidium sp. was 30.58%. The growth rate varied between 0.74 ± 0.01 and 0.68 ± 0.02.