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Literature Review Introduction Graph 1: In this graph, the x-axis represents time and the y-axis represents average global temperature changes Graph 2: In this graph, the x- axis represents time and the y- axis represents the million metric tons of carbon produced a year from fossil fuels. Due to the increase in carbon dioxide concentration in the earth’s atmosphere, global temperatures have risen steadily and could rise as much as 4ºC in the next decade. (Cox, 2000) Lipids in the form of triglycerides can react with methanol to form methyl esters (biodiesel) and glycerol (Hossain, 2008). Picture 1 – Transesterfication Reaction Chart 1 – Comparison of Sources of Triglycerides for Biodiesel Algae yields the largest amount of oil for the smallest percentage of cropping area (Christi, 2007). Purpose The purpose of this experiment was to determine the effects of an acid, base, or enzyme catalyst on the fuel produced by a transesterification reaction between methanol and algal oil Hypotheses 1(a) – The acid catalyst will make significantly more biodiesel that is significantly more pure than that of the other catalysts 2(a) – The enzyme catalyst will make significantly more biodiesel that is significantly more pure than that of the other catalysts 3(a) – The base enzyme catalyst will make significantly Pictures 2&3: Sterile cultures of Nannochloropsis sp. were maintained in 1L Erlenmeyer Flasks and 40mL test tubes Picture 5: Algae being farmed on a large scale. Algae can be grown in otherwise unarable land as shown Graph 3: Solid acid catalyzed biodiesel production by simultaneous esterification and transesterification. The x-axis represents time and the y-axis represents the percent of esters converted to biodiesel Graph 4: Enzymatic production of biodiesel from cotton seed oil using t-butanol as a solvent. The x-axis represents time and the y-axis represents triglyceride conversion to biodiesel Kulkarni (2006) and Royon (2007) found that a solid acid or an enzyme could be used to catalyze the transesterification reaction Picture 4: The saponification reaction occurs when FFA’s in the triglyceride source react with a base catalyst, this reaction reduces the quality of biodiesel synthesized by transesterification Chart 2 – Comparison of Algae Sources
