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Updated: Jun 1, 2026

Cultivation of Green Microalgae in Bubble Column Photobioreactors and an Assay for Neutral Lipids
Published on: January 7, 2019
The green microalga Chlorella saccharophila as a suitable source of oil for biodiesel production
Virginia A Herrera-Valencia1, Patricia Y Contreras-Pool, Silvia J López-Adrián
1Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán, Unidad de Biotecnología, Mérida, Mexico. vicky@cicy.mx.
Abstract:
The aim of this study was to investigate the potential of the green microalga Chlorella saccharophila as a source of oil for biodiesel production. We evaluated for the first time, the effect of salinity and/or nitrogen depletion (ND) on cell growth, lipid accumulation and lipid profile in this microalga. The fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) identified for C. saccharophila in this study consisted of C-16:0, C-18:0, C-18:1 cis, and C-18:1 trans. Among these, C-18:1 (indicator of biodiesel quality) was the main FAME found, representing approximately 76 and 80% of total FAME under normal and ND growing conditions, respectively. Under a normal growing condition this microalga showed 154.63 mg l(-1) d(-1), 63.33 mg l(-1) d(-1), and 103.73 mg l(-1) of biomass productivity, lipid productivity, and FAME yield, respectively. The higher biomass productivity (159.58 mg l(-1) d(-1)), lipid productivity (99.33 mg l(-1) d(-1)), and FAME yield (315.53 mg l(-1)) were obtained under the ND treatment. In comparison to other related studies, our results suggest that C. saccharophila can be considered as a suitable source of oil for biodiesel production.
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