Volume 3, Issue 5-6

The present paper deals with the production of bio-oil from algal biomass collected from Solani aqua-duct, Roorkee. The taxonomy of algal sample shows the dominance of Hydrodictyon reticulatum (L) Lagerheim with trace amount of ulotrichalean strains. The algal biomass contains 14.01 wt.% of lipid. The most suitable conditions for the production of bio-oil have been identified as biomass to hexane ratio of 1.7 and temperature of 30 °C. Under this condition around 60% of the oil/lipid in the algal cells have been extracted with the extraction/agitation period of 6 h. The produced bio-oil has been upgraded to biodiesel by transesterification using H 2 SO 4 as catalyst. Both the algal bio-oil and biodiesel have been characterized through GC-MS and compared. The possible application of the oil extracted algal biomass has also been described.