High oil Strain

[Sagaa]

I have read some algae strains contain 80% oil. Can anyone suggest me such strains?

[cacofonix]

I doubt any algae strain contains 80% oil...the best I have heard has about 40%...some charitable people might think they observed 50% at times, but beyond that, I have not heard.

It is possible that some exotic strain which can grow in equally exotic environments produce 80%, but then that is just of academic interest...what we are interested in are strains that we can grow where normal human beings live!

[sofi]

Hi,
I heared that Botriococcus braunii shorly called Bb has got 75% oil. A massive research on this strain is done by Australia. They also say this strain has got 75% oil.

http://www.rirdc.gov.au/reports/EFM/05-025.pdf

[kwunma]

hi,
I am actually working on algal growth and flotation as part of my research work and I'm very interested in high oil strains. Any clues......??

[phyco]

I would suggest Bb and Neochloris oleoabundands. Both are tried by several algae fuel companies.

[kwunma]

thanx fr ur response. Please does any1 have a clue on any research or experiment done with these high oil strains say B braunii fr e.g.??
help needed or link to those research works wld help.
tnx

[phyco]

Hi,
This document is about Bb, I found this as very useful.......
http://www.rirdc.gov.au/reports/EFM/05-025.pdf

[joe mccleery]

I would suggest talking to Marc Orion Cardoso at www.ecogenicsresearchcenter.org I have been wanting to go to his outfit in Tennessee for some time now and I understand he has a lot of stuff going on at his place. He's one of the leaders in this field, so I would be surprized if he doesn' t have a lot of stuff figured out already on this front.

[kwunma]

tnx alot 4 ur help and kindness!
it appears i'll be working on Dunaliella salina also, cos of its high oil content plus economic values. however, i dont seem to have enough info regarding this specie...pls any help wld do.cheers

[gerrelli]

There are 20,000 strains of Microphyte (Microalgae). I believe the current catalog stands at 7000 tested for Algae strains although this is off the top of my head. It's unlikely high oil content strains would exist in western countries and are more likely to be thriving in exotic locations as stated earlier in this post. With a closed PBR system it is possible to grow any strain of microalgae. The highest yield I've heard is 30-50%, 30% being offically confirmed.

This is where more research is required, the problem is measuring the lipid (oil) content in a given strain. Techniques such as emulsion testing and Nile dye apparently is the most accessible form. Look around your local area, ponds, swamps, rivers and so on. You may get lucky. It's impossible to say only exotic species have high lipid contents as we have not tested every local strain although it's most likely as the habitat is ideal for growth and evolution of the strain due to nutrients, temperature and so on.

For me part of my research if testing various strains of algae, there's no point in testing strains already documented as this does not contribute to the field. What you should do is setup a incubation tank and try growing different strains. Run strains that have a good doubling rate through a PBR, batch system or other processing system and then measure how much oil you get. A good benchmark would be to use a known high lipid strain and compare against the oil output over a predetermined time in the same reactor or batch system. Be specific.