ABSTRACT
Constantly rising energy demands, finite fossil fuel reserves and deteriorating environmental conditions have invokedworldwide interest to explore the sustainable sources of renewable biofuels. Locally adapted photosynthetic oleaginousmicroalgae with rapid growth on variable temperatures could be an ideal way for bioremediating the wastewater (WW) whileproducing the feedstock for biodiesel. To test this notion, an unknown strain was isolated from a sewage fed lake (Neela-Hauz).It was discerned as Chlorella sorokiniana-I using the 16S rDNA and 18S rDNA barcodes. The culture conditions such as pH,illumination, different temperature ranges and growth medium were cohesively optimized prior to the assessment of C.sorokiniana-I’s efficacy to remediate the WW and biodiesel production. The strain has thrived well up to 40C when continuously grown for 15 days. The highest lipid accumulation and biomass productivity were recorded in 100% WW. Fatty acidmethyl ester (FAME) content was observed to be more than twice in WW (47%), compared to control synthetic media, TAP(20%) and BG11 (10%), which indicate the importance of this new isolate for producing economically viable biodiesel.Moreover, it is highly efficient in removing the total nitrogen (77%), total phosphorous (81%), iron (67%) and calcium (42%)from the WW. The quality of WW was considerably improved by reducing the overall chemical oxygen demand (48%),biological oxygen demand (47%) and alkalinity (15%). Thus, C. sorokiniana-I could be an ideal alga for the tropical countriesin the remediation of WW while producing feedstock for biodiesel in a cost-effective manner.