Industrial Transesterification of Cultivated Algae for Biofuel

The objective of this project was to design a chemical plant that uses cultivated algae, a sustainable energy source, grown on-site to produce carbon-neutral biofuel. The design includes a supercritical carbon dioxide extractor for the triglycerides in the algae cells, base-catalyzed transesterification in continuously stirred reactors in series, and final separation processes to produce a high-grade biofuel. The environmental considerations of the design include using carbon dioxide for algae growth and the solid-extraction process, and using methanol for the transesterification and liquid extraction, which made recycling easy and further reduced the fuel’s environmental footprint.