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The Green Microalga Chlorella saccharophila as a Suitable Source of Oil for Biodiesel Production

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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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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán (CICY, Mexico) through the project FB0054. Patricia Y. Contreras-Pool is grateful to Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT, Mexico) for the scholarship No. 224389. Authors are grateful to Ileana C. Borges Argáez, Tanit Toledano Thompson and Jorge Domínguez Maldonado for technical support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán (CICY), Unidad de Biotecnología, Mérida, Mexico

    Virginia A. Herrera-Valencia, Patricia Y. Contreras-Pool & Santy Peraza-Echeverría

  2. Campus de Ciencias Biológicas y Agropecuarias, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mérida, Mexico

    Silvia J. López-Adrián

  3. Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán (CICY), Unidad de Energía Renovable, Mérida, Mexico

    Luis F. Barahona-Pérez

Authors
  1. Virginia A. Herrera-Valencia
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  2. Patricia Y. Contreras-Pool
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  3. Silvia J. López-Adrián
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  4. Santy Peraza-Echeverría
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  5. Luis F. Barahona-Pérez
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Correspondence to Virginia A. Herrera-Valencia.

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Herrera-Valencia, V.A., Contreras-Pool, P.Y., López-Adrián, S.J. et al. The Green Microalga Chlorella saccharophila as a Suitable Source of Oil for Biodiesel Production. Curr Microbiol 63, 151–157 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-011-9956-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-011-9956-7

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