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Use of solvent mixtures for total lipid extraction of Chlorella vulgaris and gas chromatography FAME analysis

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Abstract

Lipid extraction is the bottleneck step for algae-based biodiesel production. Herein, 12 solvent mixture systems (mixtures of three non-polar and two polar organic solvents) were examined to evaluate their effects on the total lipid yield from Chlorella vulgaris (C. vulgaris). Moreover, the extraction yields of three solvent systems with maximum extraction efficiency of esterifiable lipids were determined by acidic transesterification and GC–FID analysis. Three solvent systems, which resulted in a higher extraction yield, were further subjected to fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) analysis. The total lipid extraction yields (based on dry biomass) were (38.57 ± 1.51), (25.33 ± 0.58), and (25.17 ± 1.14) %, for chloroform–methanol (1:2) (C1M2), hexane–methanol (1:2) (H1M2), and chloroform–methanol (2:1) (C2M1), respectively. The extraction efficiency of C1M2 was approximately 1.5 times higher than H1M2 and C2M1, whereas the FAME profile of extracted lipids by H1M2 and C1M2 were almost identical. Moreover, the esterifiable lipid extraction yields of (18.14 ± 2.60), (16.66 ± 0.35), and (13.22 ± 0.31) % (based on dry biomass) were obtained for C1M2, H1M2, and C2M1 solvent mixture systems, respectively. The biodiesel fuel properties produced from C. vulgaris were empirically predicted and compared to that of the EN 14214 and ASTM 6751 standard specifications.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their appreciation for the financial support from the ATF committee and Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (Grant Numbers of 3/29836).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, 91779, Iran

    Narges Moradi-kheibari & Hossein Ahmadzadeh

  2. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Akron, Akron, OH, 44325, USA

    Majid Hosseini

  3. Manufacturing and Industrial Engineering Department, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), Edinburg, 78539, USA

    Majid Hosseini

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  1. Narges Moradi-kheibari
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Correspondence to Hossein Ahmadzadeh.

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Moradi-kheibari, N., Ahmadzadeh, H. & Hosseini, M. Use of solvent mixtures for total lipid extraction of Chlorella vulgaris and gas chromatography FAME analysis. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 40, 1363–1373 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-017-1794-y

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