Characteristic Biofuel Microalgae Chlorella sp. as Renewable Energy Source

Abstract

World consumption of energy is estimated to increase by 49 % from 2007 to 2035, which means averagely 1.4 % yr-1. Many countries in the world began to develop alternative energy that can overcome the resources. Microalgae is one of the renewable energy that has excellent potential for making biodiesel because it contains much oil. Microalgae is the fastest organism in the photosynthesis, so it makes microalgae have high productivity. In this article, researchers use Chlorella sp. because these microalgae contain oil up to 28 % to 32 % from its dry weight, and on the other hand, this type of microalgae is easy to grow and easy to harvest. From the experimental results, the density characteristics of biodiesel Chlorella sp. have values from 0.84 g mL-1 to 0.848 g mL-1, and it is lower than the density of petroleum (diesel), and viscosity value from 2.5 cSt to 3.91 cSt, cetane numbers 51.17 to 53.72 also heating value 44.04 mJ kg-1 and Flashpoint 131 °C. The characteristic result shows that the Chlorella sp. microalgae biodiesel is still in SNI standard (Indonesia National Standard) so that the Chlorella sp. can be used as a substitute diesel fuel.