Bangalore, August 28,2020:
Ministry of Science & Technology announced that low-cost biodiesel from microalgae of marine origin may soon turn a reality, thanks to the efforts of a scientist who is working on biotechnological studies and tools for increasing the lipid accumulation in microalgae for biodiesel production.

According to a press release from the ministry, Dr T Mathimani from the National Institute of
Technology, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, started exploring alternative fuels from renewable and
sustainable sources. His submission on techniques for enhancing Triacylglycerol content in marine
microalgae towards economic biodiesel production received the "Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) faculty fellowship instituted by the Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India.

In his research supported by this award published in the journal ‘Chemosphere’, Dr. T. Mathimani’s and his team have isolated predominant strains of marine microalgal species namely Picochlorum sp., Scenedesmus sp.,  Chlorella sp., from the coastal regions of Tamil Nadu for their potential in terms of total organic carbon content, and Triacylglycerides (TAG) content for biodiesel production.

They are now focusing on other microalgal candidates for their multiple biotechnological potentials and switchable polarity solvent (SPS) system based lipid extraction. SPS is an energy-efficient switchable solvent that can be recovered devoid of any thermal processes and can be reused as green solvent for algal lipid extraction with no effect on the environment. Metabolic engineering approaches can be used to escalate TAG accumulation for increasing biodiesel yield, and magnetic nanocomposite (MNC) can be used for several cycles of algal dewatering, and its treated culture suspension can be reused to scale down the biodiesel production cost significantly. These three approaches would be considered in their study for sustainable and low-cost production of biodiesel.

The group will formulate a roadmap by which biodiesel can be produced commercially and can be put in an energy market sustainably.

INSPIRE faculty fellow Dr Mathimani developing low-cost biodiesel from microalgae