Targeted knockout of phospholipase A2 to increase lipid productivity in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii for biodiesel production.

Biofuel derived from microalgae have several advantages over other oleaginous crops, however, still needs to be improved with its cost aspect and can be achieved by developing of a strain with improved lipid productivity. In this study, the CRISPR-Cas9 system was incorporated to carry out a target-specific knockout of the phospholipase A2 gene in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. The targeted gene encodes a key enzyme in the Lands cycle. As a result, the mutants showed a characteristic of increased diacylglycerol pool, followed by a higher accumulation of triacylglycerol without being significantly compensated with the cell growth. As a result, the overall lipid productivities of phospholipase A2 knockout mutants have increased by up to 64.25% (to 80.92 g L-1 d-1). This study can provide crucial information for the biodiesel industry.

Performance and potential appraisal of various microalgae as direct combustion fuel.

Direct combustion of biomass is considered the most effective and simple means to contribute to CO2 reduction. In this context, the life-cycle potential of microalgal solid fuel, which has been overlooked so far, was comprehensively scrutinized ranging from cultivation to direct combustion. According to the quantitative data, using the raw fuel was confirmed to offer great benefits over the conventional lipid-targeted microalgal fuel systems through exploiting all of the biomass' energy potential, thereby being able to significantly increase the energy yield from biomass. The solid fuel is shown to exhibit diverse positive aspects owing to its remarkable calorific value, productivity and CO2 fixation ability. The combustion test reveals coal-microalgae co-combustion brings beneficial consequences on combustibility and environmental impacts with no notable thermal efficiency drop. This holistic appraisal shows microalgae patently possess high potential as a direct combustion fuel, even outperforming that of extensively used woody fuels.

Multilateral approach on enhancing economic viability of lipid production from microalgae: A review.

Microalgae have been rising as a feedstock for biofuel in response to the energy crisis. Due to a high lipid content, composed of fatty acids favorable for the biodiesel production, microalgae are still being investigated as an alternative to biodiesel. Environmental factors and process conditions can alternate the quality and the quantity of lipid produced by microalgae, which can be critical for the overall production of biodiesel. To maximize both the lipid content and the biomass productivity, it is necessary to start with robust algal strains and optimal physio-chemical properties of the culture environment in combination with a novel culture system. These accumulative approaches for cost reduction can take algal process one step closer in achieving the economic feasibility.

Autotrophic hydrogen photoproduction by operation of carbon-concentrating mechanism in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii under sulfur deprivation condition.

Under autotrophic conditions, starch plays an important role in establishing anoxic conditions during PSII-dependent hydrogen (H2) photoproduction in microalgae. This is because starch is the sole organic substrate during respiratory consumption of internal oxygen (O2) from PSII-dependent direct pathway. Herein, we propose a novel approach to further facilitate the internal starch synthesis of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii through the operation of carbon-concentrating mechanism (CCM) along with a two-stage process based on sulfur (S) deprivation, thereby resulting in enhanced anaerobic capacity during PSII-dependent H2 photoproduction. When CCM-induced cells were exposed to high levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) (5%, v/v) with S deprivation, internal levels of starch were significantly elevated by retaining a functional CCM with the boosted photosynthetic activity during 24h of O2 evolution phase (I) of S deprivation. Consequently, during H2 production phase of S deprivation at irradiance of 50µEm(-2)s(-1), the concentrations of starch and H2 in CCM-induced cells were remarkably enhanced by 65.0% and 218.9% compared to that of CCM-uninduced cells, respectively. The treatment of low-CO2-driven CCM induction prior to S deprivation is a cost-effective and energy-efficient strategy that significantly improves the solar-driven H2 production by microalgae; this is particularly realizable in an industrial scale.