ABSTRACT

Biodiesel is now a well-established renewable fuel source which is often used as an alternative to petroleum-derived diesel because it can be used in existing engines with comparable performance (EPA, 2002). Traditionally, biodiesel has been made from vegetable (or plant or plant-seed) oils, animal fat, and tallow. Common vegetable oils used in preparing biodiesel are soy, sunower, safower, canola, and palm. Palm oil has numerous positive aspects for biodiesel production. Among those attributes are a high production rate, a high oil content, and high oil production per acre (27 times more than soy). Life-cycle analysis (LCA) also reveals that production of palm-based biodiesel can reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) to a greater extent than other leading vegetable oils (Abdullah et al., 2009). Algal oil is a nonfood feedstock that is the object of much research and development and is increasingly used for biodiesel production. Like terrestrial plants, algae grow by photosynthesis through the use of CO2, water, and sunlight. Unlike terrestrial plants, algae grow in aqueous suspensions, which enable more ef- cient use of H2O, CO2, and other nutrients. This gives algae the potential to produce more oil per unit area than other crops currently used for biodiesel production. The lipid content in algae has been known to reach 50% under appropriate conditions. An in-depth investigation into the potential use of algae to produce biodiesel was conducted by Pokoo-Aikins et al. (2010a).