Identification and characterization of a freshwater microalga Scenedesmus SDEC-8 for nutrient removal and biodiesel production

The selection of the right strains is of fundamental important to the success of the algae-based oil industry. From the six newly isolated microalgae strains tested for growth, fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) profiles and biodiesel properties, Scenedesmus SDEC-8, with favorable C16:0 fatty acids (73.43%), showed the best combined results. Then, morphological and molecular identification were examined. From the three wastewaters samples, Scenedesmus SDEC-8 showed good ability to yield oil and remove nutrients, which were comparable with other reports. In b artificial wastewater (TN 40 mg L−1, TP 8 mg L−1), Scenedesmus SDEC-8 achieved the highest value of lipid productivity (53.84 mg L−1 d−1), MUFA content (35.35%) and total FAME content (59.57 ± 0.02 mg g−1 DW), besides higher removal efficiencies of TN (99.18%) and TP (98.86%) helped effluent directly discharge and smaller dilution factor of N, P (3.3 and 9) which was good for lessening water utilization.