Screening of marine microalgae isolated from the hypersaline Bardawil lagoon for biodiesel feedstock

Abstract

Recently, microalgae have been attracting a wide attention as a source of high-lipid feedstock to produce biodiesel. A total of twenty one halophilic microalgae were isolated from the hypersaline Bardawil lagoon North Sinai, Egypt. Nine of them were further characterized with respect to biomass and fatty acid productivities. Biomass productivity as cellular dry weight (CDW), fatty acid content and, consequently, fatty acid productivity of the chlorophyte Tetraselmis elliptica was the highest among alltested strains (0.122 g CDW L−1 d−1, 77.36 mg g−1 CDW and 14.1 mg L−1 d−1, respectively). Lipid fractionation showed that total lipids represented 12.96 mg g−1 CDW and neutral lipids represented 37% of the total lipids with corresponding iodine value of 70.3 g I2/100 g oil. In all fractions, C16:0 and C18:1n-9 were predominant, being as high as 31 and 20% of total fatty acids in neutral lipids, 26 and 24% of total fatty acids in polar lipids and 28 and 26% of total fatty acids in phospholipids, respectively. This study demonstrates that the halophilic microalga T. elliptica isolated from hypersaline water is a promising species for biodiesel feedstock.