In biodiesel production from microalgae, membrane separation can play an important role in process intensification and product purification. Membrane technology can be easily integrated into various steps of biodiesel production: harvesting and dewatering of microalgae and purification of triacylglycerols from wet microalgae for biodiesel production.

Algal biomass harvesting refers to the process of concentrating a diluted microalgae broth (<1 wt%) to a slurry or solid paste containing 5–25 % wt, or more, total suspended solids (Grimaa et al. 2003). Algal biomass harvesting is a significant challenge in microalgae production, due to the unique physical properties of microalgae, including the small size (3–30 μm) of microalgae cells and a density comparable to water. The cost for algal biomass harvesting accounts for 20–30 % of the operational cost of microalgae production (Grimaa et al. 2003). Among various techniques (gravity sedimentation, centrifugation, filtration, flocculation,...