Design, fabrication, and preliminary testing of a closed raceway for the outdoor cultivation of the green alga (Chlorella vulgaris)for biodiesel production.

Date

2012

Degree

Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering

College

College of Engineering and Agro-Industrial Technology (CEAT)

Restrictions

Restricted: Not available to the general public. Access is available only after consultation with author/thesis adviser and only to those bound by the confidentiality agreement.

Abstract

A 100-L closed raceway was designed and fabricated for the outdoor cultivation of Chlorella vulgaris for biodiesel production. The design was based from the open pond in the study of Radmann,et al. (2007). The raceway was located outside at the New Chemical Engineering building CEAT-UPLB. Batch and continuous operations were made using the fabricated raceway. From the batch operation, an average specific growth rate of 0.1433 day⁻¹ and average doubling time of 4.9203 days were obtained. In comparison with another study of the cultivation of Chlorella vulgaris in open HRA pond, the both the obtained specific growth rate and doubling time gave an average percent difference of 11.01% where the obtained values were lower. The relatively low specific growth rate was attributed to the rainy season in the location of the raceway. During the continuous operation, the average time was approximately seven days and the average volumetric flowrate of the inlet and outlet was 9.6509mL/min. The continuous operation yielded more stable biomass concentration values as time progressed. In general, it was concluded that the closed raceway is suitable for outdoor cultivation but a run during dry season is recommended.

Language

English

Location

UPLB College of Engineering and Agro-Industrial Technology (CEAT)

Call Number

LG 993 2011 E62 C39

Document Type

Thesis

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