LAUSR

Abstract Wastewater with rich nutrients has been considered as a promising resource to replace artificial culture media in the production of low-cost microalgae biofuels. However, to compete with the traditional fossil energy, the corresponding algal lipid productivity needs to be improved. In this study, iron and acetate supplements were used to improve the lipid productivity of Chlorella pyrenoidosa in actual municipal wastewater (MW). The results showed that, simultaneously adding proper amounts of iron and acetate remarkably increased the microalga dry cell weight (DCW), lipid content and lipid productivity, respectively by 185%, 248% and 671%. Moreover, the addition of acetate increased the saturation degree of the alga based fatty acid methyl esters (P