Identification of high-lipid producers for biodiesel production from forty-three green algal isolates in China

To identify some desirable algal strains for our future research and/or the production of algae-based biofuel, 43 green algal strains were successfully isolated from Chinese freshwaters, and then incubated in the laboratory bioreactors for the growth and oil accumulation investigations. During a 15 d incubation experiment, the accumulations of their biomass and total lipids, together with the lipid productivities for these green algal strains were systematically investigated and compared. Results indicated that the accumulations of biomass for the 43 algal strains ranged from 0.53 g/L to 6.07 g/L during the experiments, with the highest biomass of 6.07 g/L for green algae Scenedesmus bijuga. The lipid content for the tested algal strains varied from 20% to 51% of the dry biomass at the end of cultivation experiments. Green algae Chlorella pyrenoidosa was one of the best oil producers based on our investigations, with the total lipid content of 51% of dry biomass. Taking the growth rates and the accumulations of intracellular lipids into the consideration, 10 strains were considered to have significant potential for biofuel applications. In addition, the lipid productivities of the selected strains were further investigated.