Raceway Pond Design for Microalgae culture for Biodiesel

Microalgae culture is a potential source of biodiesel and one of the best alternatives as raw material for biodiesel production. The first objective of this work is the pilot plant design for microalgae culture of high oil content species. The design was inspired by raceway large-scale culture. Although this kind of culture is usually in outdoor ponds, the pilot plant is an indoor raceway pond, therefore, it was necessary to design the lighting system and, also, the stirring system. The designed device was tested with Isochrysis Galbana clon T-Iso semi-continuous culture. Finally, microalgae oil was extracted and this oil was suitable for biodiesel production.