Biodiesel production and environmental CO2 cleanup using oleaginous microorganisms from Al-Hassa area in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Biodiesel production is rapidly moving towards the mainstream as an alternative source of energy. Algae oil is one of the viable feed stocks among others to produce Biodiesel. However the difficulties in efficient biodiesel production from algae lie not in the extraction of the oil, but in finding an algal strain with a high lipid content and fast growth rate. This paper presents an experimental work performed to study the production of biodiesel from local algae strains in Al-Hassa territory of the eastern province in Saudi Arabia which was found to contain high lipid contents and show rapid growth. The collected results predict that those types of desert algae are promising and are considered to be a potential feedstock for biofuels.