High FAME yield Biodiesel from microalgae through nanocatalytic transesterification process.

Biodiesel production from microalgae is significantly important when reserves of petro-diesel are depleting, and utilization of vegetable oil-based fuel leads to food scarcity. The rapid growth and high lipid content of microalgae is an ideal feedstock for biodiesel production. The use of nanocatalyst is favorable due to its high activity, high stability, large ansd efficient surface to volume ratio, high resistance to saponification and reusable characteristics up to 5 times. The nanocatalyst has been prepared by wet impregnation method and compared with the base catalyst characterized by X-ray diffraction method, scanning electron microscopy, BET surface area analysis, and FT-IR. The study states the formation of nanocatalysed particle with the particle size of 50nm. The SEM study supports the formation of nanoparticle in the shape of flower. The catalyst found to possess the maximum basic strength and show the maximum activity towards the transesterification of microalgae. The main motive of this work is to produce biodiesel with higher FAME yield. The transesterification of microalgae oil using the nanocatalyst gives the FAME yield of 96% characterized by GC-MS at optimum parameters.