BENEFITS AND USEFULNESS OF

MICROALGAE AS BIOFUELS
INSTEAD OF FOSSIL FUELS
Muhammad Langgi Ladian

Geological Engineering, Faculty of Exploration and Exploitation Technology, Universitas

Pertamina,

Jl. Teuku Nyak Arief, Simprug, Grogol Selatan, RT.7/RW.8, Grogol Sel., Kebayoran Lama,
Jakarta Selatan, 12220

muhammadlanggi16@gmail.com

Abstract

Microalgae are a renewable energy resource which that can be used for promising sustainable energy.
Microalgae can be converted as biodiesel fuel, but not all microalgae can be used to energy. This
paper describe the process establishment energy from microalgae. Oil and gas can be produced by
using thermochemical, and ethanol and biodiesel can be produced by biochemical processes.
Compared to oil palm, microalgae is more sustainable source of biodiesel energy in terms of food
security. Products from microalgae almost have in common with fish oil and vegetable oils that can
use to replaced fossil fuels.

Keyword: microalgae, renewable energy, sustainable energy, biodiesel, fuel

Introduction

The human activity cannot be separated by energy fossil need. Use of fossil energy give a bad
impact for the environmental. Impact of fossil energy as global warming, rising sea level, and
creating pollution that is harmful to living thing. Of the problem, humans are required to
responsible for creating stability of environmental conditions.

With the problems caused by fossil energy, therefore Indonesia should utilize the maximum
energy that is environmentally friendly and new renewable. Utilization of biofuels can at least
reduce the impact of fossil energy use. Currently the main source of biofuel that is developed
in Indonesia is oil palm. However, the increase in biofuel in the future will affect the food
needs, it is necessary to look for biofuels that do not compete with food and that have high
productivity resulting in a lot of bio-fuels with fewer land needs.

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 Fig. 1. Forest land used for oil palm plantations in Kalimantan

Microalgae is a microscopic aquatic microorganism which can be found in freshwater and sea
water and belong to a type autotrophic organism (Winahyu, 2013:93). Algae act as one
ecological parameters that can provide an overview of the waters and including components
biotic is important in the metabolism of the water body, because it is the primary link in the
food chain of aquatic ecosystems (Samudra et,al, 2012:7). Oil from microalgae produces
much greater productivity than high plant oils, microalgae can produce vegetable oil at least
10 times the oil palm or about 30 times the oil per hectare (John Benemann, 2008).

Tropical countries like Indonesia have advantages compared to sub-tropical countries in the
utilization and development of microalgae because in the tropics have a relatively similar
climate throughout the year and the sun is always shining in the day very supportive to
cultivate microalgae using the method of open pond system which is cheaper than using
photo bioreactors used in sub-tropical regions.

Microalgae cultivation can use open and closed systems with controlled environmental
conditions. An open system uses open water pools by utilizing direct sunlight. Meanwhile, on
a closed system of microalgae in cultivation in a bioreactor connected to multiple light
sources. The parameters needed to grow are lighting, temperature, water rich in CO2 nutrients
into the system. Types of photo bioreactors such as glass or plastic pipes, polyethylene bags
or bags, tanks with their own light sources and open pools covered with greenhouses.
Waterwheels can be added to the pool to circulate water. In open pond with optimum design,
production microalgae can reach 50 grams / m2 / day (John Sheehan, 1998).

Microalgae are usually cultivated for 12 to 15 days per cycle before harvesting. The condition
of the pond or reactor bioreactor is very dilute, usually microalgae obtained from the pond
system have a concentration of 1% solids, meanwhile to produce biodiesel, usually required
in the form of paste, with a concentration of about 15% (Nick Sazdanoff, 2006).

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Data

Microalgae can produce more than 100000 liters of oil per ha year, while palm, coconut,
castor and sunflower fruits produce oils of 5959, 2689, 1213 and 952 liters per ha year,
indicating the presence of more oil-producing microalgae.

There are four main options in the Aquatic Species Program (ASP) to produce fuel, but only
three. Namely methane gas, ethanol and biodiesel. The fourth option is combustion but ASP
does not focus on combustion.

Algae contain a lot of oil. The oil content of some microalgae exceeds 80% of the dry weight
of algae biomass. Some have a content of 15-40% (dry weight), while oil palm has about
50%, copra contains about 60% and sunflower by 55%. The oil content can be estimated to
be 64.4% of the total fat content.

Methodology

To obtain energy sources from microalgae can be used with several methods,
both in the form of biochemical and thermochemical conversion. Biochemical
conversion is divided into ways such as utilizing the metabolism of
bioelectrochemical fuel cell organisms, aerobic digestion and fermentation.
While the thermochemical conversion process can be divided into liquefaction,
pyrolysis, gasification.

Fig. 2. Types of energy conversion from microalgae.

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 Fig. 3. Integration of model concepts from biomass production

Fermentation is used commercially on a large scale in various countries to produce ethanol

from sugar crops and starch crops. The biomass is ground, and the stretch is converted by
enzymes to sugar. The sugar is converted to ethanol by yeast, the purification process of
ethanol by distillation is an energy intensive step (Sarmidi Amin, 2008).

Transesterification is a process of exchange the alkoxy group of an ester compound by

another alcohol, reactions are often catalyzed by an acid or base and reaction of a fat or oil
with an alcohol to from esters and glycerol (Sarmidi Amin, 2008).

Gasification is a term that describes a chemical process by with carbonaceous materials

(hydrocarbon) are converted to a synthesis gas (Syngas) by means of partial oxidation with
air, oxygen and/or steam at high temperatures, typically in the range 800-900 oC (Sarmidi
Amin, 2008).

Liquefaction can be performed by using a stainless steel auto cleave with mechanical mixing,
auto cleave is charged with algal cell, following which nitrogen is introduced to purge the
residual air, reaction is initiated by heating the autoclave to a fixed temperature and by
elevated nitrogen pressure, temperature is maintained constant for a 5-60 min period,
following which it was cooled with the use of an electric fan (Sarmidi Amin, 2008).

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Pyrolysis is conversion of biomass to biofuel, charcoal and gaseous fraction by heating the
biomass in the absence of air to around 500oC or by heating in the presence of a catalyst, at
high heating rate (103-104 K/s) and with short gas residence time to crack into short chain
molecules an then using below pyrolysis processes; they were performing at a low heating
rate and a long residence time because secondary cracking of the primary products, reducing
yield and adversely affecting the biofuel properties (Sarmidi Amin, 2008).

Gasification is the conversion of biomass into combustion gas such as H 2, CH4, CO2 and
ammonia, product gas low calorific value (about 4-6 MJ/N m3), and it can be burned directly
or used as a fuel for gas engines and gas turbines, or it can be used as a feedstock (syngas) in
the production of chemicals (e.g. methanol) (Sarmidi Amin, 2008).

Fig. 4. Schematic stages to produce biodiesel

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Discussion
Microalgae can be produced into biofuels by means of biochemical and thermochemical
conversion. The biochemical processes of fermentation and trasesterification, in which the
process of microalgae fermentation can be used as ethanol or as gasohol with a mixture of
90% gasoline and 10% ethanol. Then, transesterification can be used as biodiesel by using a
homogeneous or heterogeneous catalytic process.

Thermochemical conversion processes such as gasification can produce fuels with nitrogen
cycles in combination with low temperature catalysts. Furthermore, there is a liquefaction
that uses hydrothermal liquefaction in sub-critical water codes that can convert bio-material
into liquid fuels. In the latter pyrolysis, to obtain oil or charcoal using a slow pyrolysis
process, they were performing at a low heating rate and a long residence time because
secondary cracking of the primary products, reducing yield and adversely affecting the
biofuel properties

Conclusion
Microalgae can be used as an alternative fuel to reduce the impact of fossil energy use. Algae
cultivation uses open systems that use open water ponds by utilizing direct sunlight while
closed systems use bioreactor to many light sources it is based on the surrounding
environmental constellation, if in the tropics can use open systems and if the sub-tropical
region must use the system closed.

Production from microalgae vegetable oil is much higher than oil palm. Each hectare of oil
from microalgae produces 10 times more than palm oil and 30 times the oil per hectare.

Biochemical conversion use of metabolism of bioelectrochemical fuel cell organisms, aerobic

digestion and fermentation. The thermochemical conversion process can be divided into
liquefaction, pyrolysis, gasification. To obtain energy sources from microalgae can use
biochemical and thermochemical conversion. The systems contained in biochemical
conversion such as fermentation can produce ethanol, the transesterification process can
produce biodiesel, gasification can produce gas, melting can produce oil and pyrolysis is the
conversion of biomass into biofuel, charcoal and gas.

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