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Introduction

Today’s world depicts an over-reliance on fuel for almost every human need, with little or no sustainability (Ge et al., 2017). The rate of replenishment of utilized fuels is almost non-existent, thus arises the urgent need for an infusion of fuel from renewable resources globally (Sreenath and Pai, 2018). These concerns and debate brings “Biodiesel” to the global energy stage. Biodiesel is a resultant fuel from various biological means and resources especially plant wastes, which serve as a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels (Mofijur et al., 2019). Biodiesel has a large potential for resolving the global energy crisis, while also creating little or no serious threats environmentally (Othman et al., 2017).

An interesting and satisfying feedstock for biodiesel production is algae (Kumar and Singh, 2019). Ironically, fossilized algae over billions of years are, what is currently a major component of fossil fuels.  Apparently, algae is a potential source of sustainable fuel (Kumar et al., 2020). It potentially gives a high yield of biodiesel compared to other plant sources which are also global competitors for food (Muhammad et al., 2021). Another advantage of algae use is its almost non-existent profligacy; algae can grow under any environmental, geographical or meteorological condition – it grows in deserts, marshlands, and even unexpected places among others. They also act as huge carbon sinks, which impacts the environment positively by combating global warming in their own not so little way (Kadir et al., 2018). They do not require sufficient or special resources to enable their growth, and they also do not compete for areas of vegetation with valuable food crops (Satpati and Pal, 2018).

Various studies have evaluated Microalgae’s potential as a source of biofuel; it acts as a great carbon sink as a result of its comparatively huge photosynthetic effectiveness and prolific growth rates (Konur, 2021). Biodiesel synthesized from algae burns cleanly and is synthesized from local resources that are renewable (Hussain et al., 2021). After little or non-existent postproduction processing, it could be utilized in various diesel engines (Goh et al., 2019).  With no traces of fossil fuel, it could be blended with “fossil fuel” diesel in any desired ratio depending on the design of the compression-ignition engine intended for use in (Jeevahan et al., 2018). It also possesses some very desirable traits in its ease of utilization, simplicity, non-existent impurities, biodegradability and non-toxicity (Kodate et al., 2021).  Another scenario to consider is the global inflation in petroleum prices and the reduction in both the capital and operating costs of obtaining biodiesel from algae (Datta et al., 2019).  All these factual qualities make biodiesel synthesis from algae a logical potential alternative to fossil fuels (Maltsev et al., 2017).

Recently, the idea of creating biodiesel from microalgae has picked up enthusiasm by scientists because of the high oil yield gotten from algal feedstock contrasted with different sources which produce lesser measures of oil and are observed to be less conservative to be used in biodiesel generation (Khan et al., 2017). This research would  give a definite clarification on the correlation of creation of biodiesel from two distinct algae species in areas such as, micro-algal biomass production, algae cultivation system, harvesting techniques, choice of algae chosen as a case study, oil extraction and how it may be enhanced to accomplish a high yield (Ganesan et al., 2020).

The transesterification of various organic matters birth heavy chained fatty acid mono-alkyl esters – Biodiesel. It is known as a sustainable and renewable alternative to fossil fuels, with little or no environmental concerns. It also helps foster  agricultural activities as a means for global economic growth (Schade and Meier, 2019). The only concern would be the use of various crops competing for the global production of food as feedstock. This is where the use of biomass with a notable example being algae, comes in (Suparmaniam et al., 2019).

The carbon content, oxygen content and hydrogen content of biodiesel varies with that of the conventional fossil fuel, since Biodiesel is infused with oxygen (Kumar et al., 2019). This oxygen infusion translates to the clean combustion of biodiesel, and the lack of emission of pollutants from carbon soot after combustion has taken place (Chia et al., 2018). The fatty acid esters’ structural chains help define the intrinsic properties of Biodiesel (Deshmukh et al., 2019). Properties like its viscosity, its stability after being oxidized, flow properties at low temperatures (to determine if it would solidify in compression-ignition engines), the quality of its ignition and its lubricity are determined by these polymeric chains (Shanmugam et al., 2020).

Problem Statement

Over time, research has demonstrated the predominance of microalgae as a moderately practical feedstock in the creation of biodiesel (Lage et al., 2018). This research would help the review of survey to look at different sources of feedstock and their lipids substance, comparison of lipid substance and lipid yield of several algae species as well as their characteristics living spaces (Kamalanathan et al., 2018), review of survey on mass growth and development of algae, lipid extraction and harvesting methods (Japar et al., 2017). Experiments would be carried out to ideally blend biodiesel from two algae species with comparative analysis given on the algal lipids extracted (Menegazzo and Fonseca, 2019).

Aim and Objectives

The aim of this study is to ideally produce biodiesel from two distinct algae species and give a comparative analysis on the algal lipids extracted from both species.

These are the following objectives:

• Objective 1:  Harvesting the algal biomass and extraction of oils from the strains of the algal species (Singh and Patidar, 2018).
• Objective 2:   Production of biodiesel by chemical trans-esterification of algal oils (Brutyan, 2017).
• Objective 3:  Comparison of the fuel properties of biodiesel produced to standard properties of biodiesel produced from algae.
• Objective 4: Carrying out a comparative analysis between the lipids and biodiesel gotten distinctively from the two algae species (Sati et al., 2019).

Research Questions

The identified research questions for this project are provided below:

• How do we harvest the algal biomass?
• How is the extraction of oils from the strain of the algal species carried out?
• How is the production of biodiesel by chemical trans-esterification of algal oils carried out?
• How are the fuel properties of biodiesel produced compared to standard properties of biodiesel produced from algae?
• How is a comparative analysis between the lipids and biodiesel gotten distinctively from the two algae species carried out?

Deliverables

The deliverables of these project are a project report, samples of the synthesized products and gotten results. The synthesized products would be tested according to industry standards and literature to see how they compare with required standards.  Also, the report should contain a complete documentation of how the laboratory experiment was carried out, how the various algae biomass and the biodiesel were analyzed, how various process variables were gotten, how the desired products were synthesized and how the results were arrived at.

Relevance

The study is majorly focused on carrying out  a comparative analysis of the production of biodiesel from the biomass of various algae species.

Methodology

This project focuses on secondary research, laboratory experiments and process analysis, and they are discussed below:

Secondary research

The secondary research in this project will utilize a systematic approach (Johnson et al., 2016) to review the works of literature. The steps involved in the systematic review of the literature are provided below:

• Step 1: Identify the research questions that can be used for the project.
• Step 2: Identify the keywords that should be used to research the works of literature.
• Step 3: Extract the journals and books that are appropriate for this project.
• Step 4: Write the literature review chapter.

Laboratory experiments

The laboratory experiments would cover a large chunk of this project. They would be carried out in stages, and as such described below;

• Stage 1:  Sourcing for the required feedstock (the chosen algae) and other required raw materials.
• Stage 2:   Characterization of the various algal biomass
• Stage 3:  Developing an appropriate process route and optimal equipment arrangement for an efficient process setup.
• Stage 4:  Carrying out the process reaction.
• Stage 5:  Analyzing the process reaction.
• Stage 6:  Carrying out the phase separation.
• Stage 7:  Comparative analysis of the resultant biodiesel.
• Stage 8:  Results Testing.

Process Analysis

The totality of the process reaction would be analyzed and this would also occur in stages;

• Stage 1:  Process Testing
• Stage 2:  Process Control
• Stage 3:  Process Optimization

Evaluation

The risk assessment conducted for this project is provided in the table below:

Table 1:  Risk assessment