BIOFUEL PRODUCTION FROM MARINE MICROALGAE Nannochloropsis Salina USING PAPER MILL EFFLUENTS

The use of fossil fuels is unsustainable due to limited supply and also due to large emissions of Carbon dioxide due to the effect of global warming. Biofuel is a viable option but can, as produced today; only provide a limited amount of fuels needed. Biofuels are presently derived from terrestrial plants, which require large amounts of arable land. Biofuels from microalgae on the other hand do not necessarily require arable land and can theoretically replace fossil fuels absolutely. Biofuels from microalgae could use industry waste water as growth medium particularly paper industry waste water is an interesting potential provider due to its high nitrogen and phosphorus in waste water. In this research work marine microalgae Nannochloropsis Salina was cultivated using f/2 medium using modified air lift photo-bioreactor along with the paper industry effluent waste water, The doubling time calculated from optical density attained at 48 hrs the cell count almost doubled during this period. Since the marine species is sensitive to pH we need to maintain the pH at 7 below 7indicated the decreased biomass levels in culture. The lipid extraction was studied using solvent methods. The functional compounds in lipids FAME were studied using GC-MS analysis, the Nannochloropsis salina showed qualities of growing in fresh water and brackish water apart from the marine water which is a desirable characteristic for algal phycoremediation