Clean Energy for Sustainable Development

17.14. Microalgal Potential for Biodiesel Production

Some algae are capable of accumulating lipids and fatty acids during the photosynthesis process by converting carbon dioxide in the presence of sunlight to be used as biofuel, food, and other valuable compounds. In earlier work, we screened 13 freshwater microalgae for fatty oils productivity. We found that S. obliquus was a promising microalga for lipid production in large-scale cultures because of its high gain of biomass production which resulted in high lipid and fatty oil productivity [123].The idea of using microalgae as a source of biofuel is not new, but it nowadays has been taken seriously because of the rising price of petroleum more significantly and the emerging concern about burning ...