Screening For Algae With a Potential For High Oil Production

A few species of microalgae are being large-scale cultivated for production of healthcare products and pigments. Earth houses a huge number of different algae species, but only a limited number of these have been investigated for their ability to produce lipids for production of biodiesel. Lipids may comprise up to 70% of total dry weight in some micro algae species, but this high potential cannot be economically utilized if biomass production is slow or low. Thus, biomass production is a limiting factor and has to be optimized.