Use of Some Phytoplankton from Shatt al-Arab Estuary in the Production of Hydrocarbons

The idea of the hydrocarbons extraction from algae as biofuel is not new but it has recently been seriously thought of as an alternative to petroleum fuel because it is less polluting the environment, it is eco-friend as well as the escalating price of petroleum. So, the current study included six species of algae related to three classes were Nostoc, Microcystis and Spirulina related to Cyanbacteria, Chlorella and Cladophora related to Chlorophyta and Compsopgon related to Rhodophyta, to estimate its total content of hydrocarbons. The Cyanobacteria were more producing to the hydrocarbonic compounds represented by Nostoc, Microcystis and Spirulina (108.292, 85.369, 37.687) g/g respectively followed by Cladophora and Chlorella ( 17.831, 10.160) g/g respectively then Compsopgon (2.438) g/g, then they were separated to identify Aliphatic compound by using GC ( Gas Chromatography), Chlorella was more product to these compound which was (68181.32) ng/g then Spirulina, Microcystis and Nostoc ( 52559.57, 37262.72, 25236.42) ng/g respectively. Aromatic compounds were identified by using HPLC, the total of these compounds in Microcystis was ( 6091.92) ng/g where was in Spirulina and Nostoc ( 3307.09, 1722.81) ng/g respectively then Chlorella and Cladophora ( 1687.17, 1162.98) ng/g respectively.