Microalgae purpose

The current production of microalgae is mainly focused around a few species, such as Spirulim, Chlorella, Dunaliella or Haematococcus for nutritional purposes (for humans) and animal feed (especially aquaculture). Other sectors, such as cosmetics, effluent treatment and bioenergy, have shown interest, incorporating these or other species of microalgae and cyanobacteria into commercial products. Currently, 95% of the production of microalgae is based on open systems... 

The study has been carried out for the purpose of investigating the fixation of CO 2 in exhaust gas fi om thermal power stations by microalgae and the effective utihzation of microalgal products. 

Figure 2 Examples of microalgae cultivation systems. Each system has been designed for a specific purpose and was scaled using on the engineering approach described in the text.

Ifrim GA, Titica M, Cogne G, Bofllereaux L, LegrandJ, Caraman S Dynamic pH model for autotrophic growth of microalgae in photobioreactor a tool for monitoring and control purposes, AIChEJ 60(2) 585—599, 2014. 

Table 4.2 Culture collections and suppliers of living microalgae cultures, for commercial or research purposes...

The selection of an appropriate species of microalgae for conversion to biofuels is a more interesting problem than if terrestrial plants were used because there is a larger variety of species that may be chosen from. The now-defunct Aquatic Species Program of the US Department of Energy (Sheehan et al., 1998) accumulated a collection of 3000 species that it tested solely for the purpose of being used as sources of biodiesel. There is therefore a potentially immense number of other species that may be tested for other applications also. 

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