Oleaginous microalgae are seen as a potential major biofuel producer in the future since, under conditions of nitrogen deprivation, they can contain high amounts of lipids, while they consume CO2 from power plants. These photosynthetic microorganisms are however rather different from the microorganisms usually used in biotechnology. In particular, predicting the behaviour of microalgal based pr...

A novel photobioreactor was developed with a total volume of 30 m(3) which required merely 100 m(3) of land footprint. The bioreactor was capable of utilizing CO(2) in the flue gas of a power plant as the carbon source for the growth of a freshwater alga, Spirulina platensis, mitigating the greenhouse effect caused by the same amount of CO(2) discharge. Results of the study indicated that the p...

Microalgae are fast-growing photosynthetic organisms which have the potential to be exploited as an alternative source of liquid fuels to meet growing global energy demand. The cultivation of microalgae, however, still needs to be improved in order to reduce the cost of the biomass produced. Among the major costs encountered for algal cultivation are the costs for nutrients such as CO₂, nitroge...

The potential of halotolerant algae isolated from natural resources was used to study CO2 fixation and algal lipid production. Biological fixation of CO2 in photobioreactor in presence of salinity is exploited. The CO2 concentration 1060 ppm gave the highest biomass yield (700 mg dry wt/l), the highest total lipid content (10.33%) with 80% of CO2 removal.

To evaluate the potential of the green agla Chlorella zofingiensis as a feedstock for biodiesel production, the effects of nitrogen and phosphate on lipid accumulation and growth of C. zofingiensis were studied. The maximum specific growth rate (μ(max)) reached 2.15 day⁻¹ when the concentration of NaNO₃ and K₂HPO₄·3H₂O was 1.0 g L⁻¹ and 0.01 g L⁻¹, respectively. The lipid contents of C. zofingi...

Response surface methodology (RSM) based on the 23 factorial central composite design (CCD) was employed to evaluate optimum culture conditions (temperature, light irradiance and agitation) to enhance biomass and phycocyanin content of Spirulina platensis. The predicted maximum biomass and phycocyanin content by RSM was 1.06 g L-1 and 107 mg L-1, respectively, whereas maximum biomass and phycoc...

Parasites are now known to be ubiquitous across biological systems and can play an important role in modulating algal populations. However, there is a lack of extensive information on their role in artificial ecosystems such as algal production ponds and photobioreactors. Parasites have been implicated in the demise of algal blooms. Because individual mass culture systems often tend to be unial...

Lack of high-density algal photobioreactors (PBR) has been a limitation in exploiting the biotechnological potential of algae. Recent developments of highly efficient light-emitting diodes (LED using gallium aluminum arsenide chips) have made the development of a small LED-based PBR possible. We have calculated theoretical values of gas mass transfer requirements and light-intensity requirement...