Abstract
Microalgae have been considered as a promising biomass for biofuel production, but freshwater resource consumption during the scaled-up cultivation are still a challenge. Obtaining robust marine strains capable of producing triacylglycerols and high value-added metabolites are critical for overcoming the limitations of water resources and economical feasibility. In this study, a marine microalga with lipid and astaxanthin accumulation capability was isolated from Bohai Bay, China. The alga was named as Coelastrum sp. HA-1 based on its morphological and molecular identification. The major characteristics of HA-1 and the effects of nitrogen on its lipid and astaxanthin accumulations were investigated. Results indicated that the highest biomass, lipid and astaxanthin yields achieved were 50.9 g m−2 day−1, 18.0 g m−2 day−1 and 168.9 mg m−2 day−1, respectively, after cultivation for 24 days. The fatty acids of HA-1, identified in their majority as oleic acid (56.6%) and palmitic acid (25.9%), are desirable biofuel feedstocks. In addition, this alga can be harvested with simple sedimentation, achieving 98.2% removal efficiency after settling for 24 h. These results suggest that Coelastrum sp. HA-1 has several desirable key features that make it a potential candidate for biofuel production.
Highlights
With the dwindling reserves of fossil fuels and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, biofuels are considered to be an attractive source of energy [1]
The results show that the removal efficiency of Coelastrum sp
Efficient sedimentation might lead to higher energy consumption on suspending microalgae during the cultivation; the experiment results in this study showed that strain HA-1, N. oculata and C. sorokiniana all reached the optimum conditions using the same air flow rate (100 mL/min) for aerating
Summary
With the dwindling reserves of fossil fuels and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, biofuels are considered to be an attractive source of energy [1]. Some major technical challenges have to be addressed before algal biofuel becomes a commercial reality [2]. Major technical barriers remain in the availability of novel algae strains, high lipid productivity, and low harvesting cost [3]. As there are conflicting uses of available freshwater, whereas seawater is abundant, it is more advantageous to use microalgae adapted to seawater for biofuel production. None of the research and development efforts to date have been able to demonstrate economical production of biofuel from microalgae. Astaxanthin production with microalgae has achieved considerable commercial success [6]. Harvesting microalgae is another major difficulty in large-scale production of microalgae-derived biofuels because of their small cell size and low concentration in cultures [4]
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