Cultivation of Three Microalgae Strains under Mixotrophic Conditions for Biodiesel Production

Microalgal biomass have a potential to be used as feedstock for biodiesel production because of high photosynthetic rates, high biomass production, faster growth in comparison to traditional feedstocks and to not be competitive with food production. In this paper, the growth and lipid content of three microalgae strains, namely Chorella vulgaris, Desmodesmus sp. and Desmodesmus brasiliensis, were studied during 9 days of mixotrophic cultivation. The laboratory scale experiments were carried out in BG-11 media enriched with 10 g/L glucose at initial medium pH of 7.5, temperature of 26 +/- 4 degrees C and light flux of 62 mu E m(-2) s(-1). The highest biomass concentration of 3.82 mg/mL was found in the Desmodesmus brasiliensis, followed with 3.64 mg/mL of Desmodesmus sp. and 3.32 mg/mL of Chorella vulgaris strain. However, the Desmodesmus brasiliensis had the lowest lipid content of 6%, followed with 13.2% of Chorella vulgaris, whereas the Desmodesmus sp. strain produced the highest lipids (19.45%).