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In this work, refined bleached deodorised palm oil (RPO) and palm kernel oil (PKO) obtained from palm oil refinery, were used as feedstocks to investigate the production of bio-hydrogenated kerosene (BHK) via hydrocracking reaction. A statistical tool of box-behnken design (BBD) was applied to consider the effects of reaction temperature, pressure and liquid hourly space velocity (LHSV) on biofuel production from RPO. The results revealed that the temperature was strongly significant effect on the yield and the optimal condition was found at 477 °C, 5.6 MPa and 1.5 h−1 of LHSV. Subsequently, crude biofuel was separated by fractional distillation, the biofuel yield was obtained at approximately 90% and providing 49.59% kerosene selectivity. Curiously, another feedstock of PKO which has lauric acid as the main composition whereas RPO contained palmitic and oleic acids, was used to produce BHK by using operating condition based-on RPO optimal condition. The biofuel yield derived from PKO reached at the same quantity. On the other hand, kerosene selectivity obtained was higher than in case of RPO (55.35%). However, high oxygen content was found in PKO-derived BHK, and this affected to freezing point and total acid number.

A new application of biocomposite hydrogels named gelatin-alginate (GA) and pectin alginate (PA) enables the use of the hydrogels as carriers for lipase entrapment during biodiesel production. Waste frying acid oil (WFAO), a raw material, was converted to biodiesel via an esterification reaction catalysed by two different immobilised biocatalysts: gelatin-alginate lipase (GAL) and pectin-alginate lipase (PAL). The highest immobilisation yield of GAL and PAL beads was achieved at 97.61% and 98.30%, respectively. Both of them gave biodiesel yields in the range of 75&ndash, 78.33%. Furthermore, capability and reusability of biocatalysts were improved such that they could be reused up to 7 cycles. Moreover, the predicted biodiesel properties met the European biodiesel standard (EN14214). Interestingly, entrapped lipase on composite hydrogels can be used as an alternative catalyst choice for replacing the chemical catalyst during the biodiesel production.

In this work, two kinds of catalyst called monometallic Palladium (Pd) and a bimetallic of Pd-Iron (Fe) were synthesised using aluminum oxide (Al2O3) as the supported material via the wet impregnate method. A monometallic catalyst (0.5% Pd/Al2O3) named Pd cat was used as control. For the bimetallic catalyst, ratios of Pd to Fe were varied, and included 0.38% Pd&ndash, 0.12% Fe (PF1), 0.25% Pd&ndash, 0.25% Fe (PF2), and 0.12% Pd&ndash, 0.38% Fe (PF3). The catalysts were characterised to investigate physical properties such as the surface area, pore size, porosity, and pore size distribution including their composition by Brunauer&ndash, Emmett&ndash, Teller (BET) surface area, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD). Subsequently, all catalysts were applied for biofuels production in terms of green diesel/kerosene/gasoline from palm oil via a hydrocracking reaction. The results showed that the loading of Fe to Pd/Al2O3 could improve the active surface area, porosity, and pore diameter. Considering the catalytic efficiency for the hydrocracking reaction, the highest crude biofuel yield (94.00%) was obtained in the presence of PF3 catalyst, while Pd cat provided the highest refined biofuel yield (86.00%). The largest proportion of biofuel production was green diesel (50.00&ndash, 62.02%) followed by green kerosene (31.71&ndash, 43.02%) and green gasoline (6.10&ndash, 8.11%), respectively. It was clearly shown that the Pd-Fe bimetallic and Pd monometallic catalysts showed potential for use as chemical catalysts in hydrocracking reactions for biofuel production.

The green microalga, Scenedesmus incrassulatus PPAY1 was cultivated in vertical tubular photobioreactor under batch/fed-batch modes. Biodiesel derived glycerol waste (BDGW) was applied as a cheap main nutrient source. For batch cultivation (BC), maximum biomass concentration was reached at 2.83 gL-1when 20 gL-1 BGW was used. In contrast, in the case of fed-batch cultivation (FBC), the maximum algae and lipid contents were achieved at 5.65 gL-1 and 58.27%, respectively when 30 and 20 gL-1 BDGW were applied. The highest lipid yield of 2.94 gL-1was found at 30 gL-1 BDGW. The analysis of the fatty acid content revealed that palmitic acid-, oleic acid- and linoleic acid- were mainly found in both BC and FBC conditions. As expected, FBC was in a better culture strategy than BC. BDGW could be used directly without any pretreatment in both algal biomass growth and microalgal oil accumulation which simplifies cultivation and reduces operating costs during biodiesel production.

In this work, the effect of catalysts, temperatures and different types of vegetable oil on the production of synthetic bio-fuel via a hydro-processing process called as a hydro-cracking reaction by high pressure pack bed reactor is investigated. Firstly, H2gas (95% purity) was fed into the reactor together with palm oil under two different catalysts (Pd/Al2O3and Pt/Al2O3) separately packed in the reactor. The effect of different temperatures (500°C and 530°C) was investigated and the pressure was applied and maintained at 5 MPa for both temperatures. The results revealed that, when the Pd/Al2O3catalyst was used the highest bio-fuel (approximately 90% at 500°C) after distillation can be produced. Then, palm oil and soybean oil were used to compare in the efficiency of kerosene fuel production. The reaction was operated at 500°C, 5 MPa under H2pressure on the presence of 0.5% Pd/Al2O3. The bio-fuel achieved the highest yields at about 88% and 69% in cases of palm oil and soybean oil. It was also classified as kerosene yield approximately 70% when palm oil was used as a feed stock and at about 55% for soybean oil. Some properties of the kerosene product were characterised. The viscosities were obtained at 1.75 and 1.84 mm2/s and provided 43.06 and 45.85 MJ/kg of heating combustion values when palm oil and soybean oil were used. In addition, the carbon distribution of the synthetic kerosene produced from palm oil was clearly shown to be in the range of C11-C13which is similar to kerosene fuel obtained from petroleum.

This work aims to investigate a potential of microalgae for utilizing industrial wastewater as a cheap nutrient for their growth and oil accumulation. Wastewater was collected from the effluent ponds of agro-industrial factories (cassava and ethanol production plants). Only 2 microalgal strains were isolated and identified as Scenedesmus quadricauda and Chlorella sp.. However, only S. quadricauda was selected to cultivate in various wastewater concentrations (10%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100%). The highest biomass obtained at 6.6×106 and 6.27×106 cells/ml when 60% wastewater was used in flask and photo-bioreactor. The cultures gave the highest lipid content at 18.58 % and 42.86% in cases of S. quadricauda and S. obliquus. In addition, under salt stress (1.0 M NaCl), S. obliquus demonstrated the highest lipid content at 50% which was much more than the case of no NaCl adding. However, the concentration of NaCl does not affect on lipid accumulation in case of S. quadricauda., {"references":["Amin S. Review on biofuel oil and gas production processes from\nmicroalgae. Energy Conversion and Management. 2009; 50: 1834-1840.","Ramadhas A.S., Jayaraj S. and Muraleedharan, C. Biodiesel production\nfrom high FFA rubber seed oil. Fuel. 84: 335-340.","Dujjanutat, P, Kaewkannetra, P. Potential use of industrial wastewater\nin selection and cultivation of microalgae as a raw material for biodiesel\nproduction Journal of Biotechnology, 2010; 150S: 149-150.","Chinnasamy S., Bhatnagar A., Hant R.W. and Das K.C. Microalgae\ncultivation in a wastewater dominated by carpet mill effluents logy.\n2010; 101: 3097-3105.","Anderson R.A, editor. Algal Culturing Techniques. [n.p.]. Hing Yip Co;\n2005","Burdon K.L. Fatty material in bacteria and funji revealed by staining\ndried, Fixed slide preparations. Journal of Bacteriology. 52: 665-678.","Iverson S.J., Lang S.L.C. and Cooper M.H. Comparison of Bligh and\nDyer and Folch methods for total lipid determination in a broad range of\nmarine tissue. Chemistry and Material Science. 2001; 36(11): 1283-\n1287.","Enmak P., Kaewkannetra P. Influences of CO2 concentrations and\nsalinity on acceleration of microalgal oil as raw material for biodiesel\nproduction. Journal of Biotechnology. 2010; 150S:19.","Dayananda C., Sarada R., Rani M.U., Shamala T.R. and Ravishankar\nG.A. Influence of Nitrogen sources on growth, hydrocarbon and fatty\nacid production by Botryococcus braunii. Asian Journal of plant\nSciences. 2006; 5(5): 799-804.\n[10] Rattanapoltee, P. Chulalaksananukul, W., James, A.E., Kaewkannetra,\nP. Comparison of autotrophic and heterotrophic cultivations of\nmicroalgae as a raw material for biodiesel production\nJournal of Biotechnology, 2008; 36: S412\n[11] Arroyo T.H., Wei W., Ruan R. and Hu B. Mixotrophic cultivation of\nChlorella vulgaris and its potential application for the oil accumulation\nfrom non-sugar materials. Biomass and Bioenergy. 2011; 35: 2245-\n2253.\n[12] Hodaifa G., Mart├¡nez M.E. and S├ínchez S. Use of industrial wastewater\nfrom olive-oil extraction for biomass production of Scenedesmus\nobliquus. Bioresource Technology. 2008; 99: 1111-1117.\n[13] Chiu S.Y., Kao C.Y., Chen C.H., Kuan T.C., Ong S.C. and Lin C.S.\nReduction of CO2 by a high - density culture of Chlorella sp. in a\nsemicontinuous photo bioreactor. Bioresource Technology. 2008; 99:\n3389-3396.\n[14] APHA, AWWA, Standard methods of the examination of water and\nwastewater, 15th edition, Washington, D.C., USA, 1995.\n[15] Zhang H., Wang W., Li Y., Yang W. and Shen G. Mixotrophic\ncultivation of Botryococcus braunii. Biomass and Bioenergy. 2011; 35:\n1710-1715.\n[16] Kojima E. and Zhang K. Growth and hydrocarbon production of\nmicroalga Botryococcus braunii in bubble column photo-bioreactors.\nBioscience and Bioenginerring. 1999; 87: 811-815."]}