One of the biggest hurdles in the production of biodiesel is the high production cost compared to petroleum-derived diesel. Even though the mechanical agitation utilised during biodiesel production is effective, it is ...

The resulting bio-waste from butter and margarine factories should be disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner. Currently the bio-waste is either flushed into the municipal sewerage system or moved to landfill ...

A new integrated biomass­to­liquids conceptual process was developed to produce 2.6 million litres of biodiesel per year from harvested micro­algal biomass. Three unconventional harvesting methods, a thermochemical ...

Three cultivation experiments were conducted to grow microalgae in three consecutively scaled-up laboratory systems, which consisted of one, five and 135-litre bioreactors. The highest productivity achieved under optimum ...

The harvesting of micro-algal biomass is one of the most inefficient and costly steps in the whole biomass-to-liquids (BtL) value chain. Harvesting costs may contribute between 20–30% of the total cost of micro­algal BtL ...

The natural occurrence of micro-algal species in water treatment plants introduces many operational problems. If one, however, considers the high lipid, protein and carbohydrate content, micro-algae become attractive as ...

One of the most expensive steps in the bio-diesel value chain is the extraction of oil from the seeds. Simultaneous extraction and transesterification will lower the overall capital costs of the process while enhancing ...

The purification of biodiesel is of cardinal importance to ensure the final product meets industry standards. This final step in the production stage contributes a large portion of the cost attributed to biodiesel production. ...

An order­of­magnitude cost estimate was conducted on a new integrated biomass­to­liquids (BtL) process that produces 2.6 million litres of biodiesel per year from micro­algal biomass harvested from the Hartbeespoort Dam. ...