Description

To enable the use of microalgae for the economical production of lipid derivatives such as fatty acid mono-alkyl esters, major progress is needed at the cultivation and transformation stages. For this, substantial reduction of the overall inputs are targeted at:

- The cultivation stage: i) decreasing the cultivation cost by use of waste effluents for the production of microalgae and their associated lipids, and possible recycling of the nutrients remaining in aqueous phase after transformation, and ii) increasing algal productivity via mixo/heterotrophic culture as per the organic substrate present in the fermentation effluents

- The transformation stage: iii) increasing the energy efficiency via the direct enzymatic functionalization of the lipid fraction of the wet biomass that will allow simpler and higher recovery of fatty acyl moieties, and iv) increasing the lipid recovery yield by the use of efficient new biocatalysts.