Experimental investigation of energy properties for Stigonematales sp. microalgae as potential biofuel feedstock

Abstract

Microalgae has been considered potential biofuel source from the last decade owing to its versatile perspectives such as excellent capability of CO2 capture and sequestration, water treatment, prolific growth rate and enormous energy content. Thus, energy research on microalgae is being harnessed to mitigate CO2 and meet future energy demands. This study investigated the bioenergy potential of native blue-green microalgae consortium as initial energy research on microalgae in Brunei Darussalam. The local species of microalgae were assembled from rainwater drains, the species were identified as Stigonematales sp. and physical properties were characterised. Sundried biomass with moisture content ranging from 6.5% to 7.37% was measured to be used to determine the net and gross calorific value and they were 7.98 MJ/kg-8.57 MJ/kg and 8.70 MJ/kg-9.45 MJ/kg, respectively. Besides that, the hydrogen content, ash content, volatile matter, and bulk density were also experimented and they were 2.56%-3.15%, 43.6%-36.71%, 57–38%-63.29% and 661.2 kg/m3-673.07 kg/m3, respectively. Apart from experimental values, other physical bioenergy parameters were simulated and they were biomass characteristic index 61,822.29 kg/m3-62,341.3 kg/m3, energy density 5.27 GJ/m3-5.76G J/m3 and fuel value index 86.19–88.54. With these experimental results, microalgae manifested itself a potential source of biofuel feedstock for heat and electricity generation, a key tool to bring down the escalated atmospheric greenhouse gases and an alternation for fossil fuel. © 2018, © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.