Mining the Potential of Microalgae

One of the most important problems that mankind has been facing is the issue of global warming. Therefore, the efforts for finding alternative energy and fuel sources are greatly increased. One of the successfully applied alternative is called as ¿biodiesel fuel¿ which is carbon neutral fuel source since it is produced from agricultural crops. It is known that up to 20% of processed oil in biodiesel production ends up with a waste product; crude glycerol. It is a low value waste product because it contains only 40 ¿ 60% glycerol, and the rest are water, methanol, salts and other impurities. It is an expensive process to purify glycerol. Microalgae are single cell plants and some strains are able to accumulate significant amounts of lipid. It is also known that some strains of microalgae can deplete organic carbon for their nutrient and energy requirements. In this book, the aim of work described is to use crude glycerol, as a carbon and energy source for microalgal growth and examine the optimum growth conditions in chemostat mode. Microalgal biomass produced using this technique can be potentially used for fuel, food and feed purposes.