One-step production of biodiesel from wet and unbroken microalgae biomass using deep eutectic solvent

One-step and Two-step methods were studied for lipid extraction from wet and unbroken (water content is 65-67%) Chlorella sp. and Chlorococcum sp. (GN38) using deep eutectic solvent (DES) treated microalgae cells. Further we optimized the extraction process and studied on its underlying mechanism. Among all DES, Choline chloride-Acetic acid (Ch-Aa) DES treatment showed optimal conditions at the mass ratio of DES: methanol-H2SO4 (2.00%) mixture: algae biomass was 60:40:3 with reaction time was 60 min, and the optimum temperature was 110 °C (Chlorococcum sp.) and 130 °C (Chlorella sp.) respectively. The total content of FAME by One-step method with DES treatment was improved by 30% compared with Two-step method. This process is effective on wet and unbroken paste of microalgae biomass, so the FAME extracted using one-step with DES process is feasible for microalgae based biodiesel production.