Effects of water culture medium, cultivation systems and growth modes for microalgae cultivation: A review

As the world's natural fuel sources continue to deplete, the search for alternative fuel sources intensifies. A promising fuel source alternative is biofuels from microalgae, due to it being a renewable source, its wide availability, and also its high production rate. This paper reviews recent developments in microalgae culture medium, cultivation systems and growth modes. The importance of identifying the type of medium suitable for microalgae cultivation is highlighted along with descriptions and comparison of the medium types that include freshwater, saltwater and wastewater. The different cultivation systems such as open system, closed system, dark system and offshore cultivation used for cultivating microalgae are discussed, along with a study on the impact of large scale cultivation using these systems. Besides that, various growth modes for microalgae cultivation like phototrophic, heterotrophic, mixotrophic, photoheterotophic modes are reviewed. (C) 2018 Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.