Screening heterotrophic microalgal strains by using the Biolog method for biofuel production from organic wastewater

article i nfo Heterotrophic cultivation of microalgae based on organic wastewater is a promising way to improve the feasibil- ity of large-scale microalgalbiofuelproduction and thushas received muchattention recently. Biolog-ECO plates, which hasbeenwidely appliedtoanalyze theabilityofdifferentbacteriatooxidize or utilizeorganic compounds, was firstly used in this study to evaluate the heterotrophic metabolic properties of five wastewater-borne microalgal strains (Scenedesmus sp. ZTY1, ZTY2 and ZTY3, Chlorella sp. ZTY4 and ZTY5). The results revealed that the microalgal strains could use a wide range of organic substrates. Scenedesmus sp. ZTY1 and Chlorella sp. ZTY4 could utilize 23 and 20 kinds of substrates among all 31 kinds of organic substrates in Biolog-ECO plate, respectively. The other three microalgal strains could also assimilate half the total kinds of the substrates. Fur- thermore, the metabolic patterns of the microalgal strains on different substrates were summarized according to the biochemical categories of the substrates. This study provides a new and rapid method to screen heterotro- phic microalgal strains for microalgal biofuel production, and presents an evidence that some wastewater-borne microalgal strains could assimilate a wide range of organic substrates.