Ahmed Mohamed

• No doubt that the whole world facing energy crisis problems, therefore, three different biofuel generations have been developed to overcome fossil fuel depletion. As first generation biofuels have been shown to be unsustainable and insufficient to meet the increasing energy demands, due to the competition for arable lands and second generation biofuels have potential negative effects on carbon balances and biodiversity, Algal-based “third generation” biofuels, typically based on microalgae can overcome the drawbacks of the two others biofuel generations. To make the biofuel (biodiesel and biogas) production process from microalgae sustainable, it is essential that further cost reductions are applied to all steps and to make use of all the process waste and convert it to energy positive outcomes. Three scientific papers have been developed in the framework of my PhD thesis contributing process sustainability. In the first paper (published) “Isolation and Screening of Non-toxic Thermo-tolerant Microalgae Strains Cultivated in Different Growth Media for Further Outdoor Applications”, we focused on robust strains selection which is the major bottleneck towards the process sustainability. Fresh water samples from Nile River / Egypt were investigated to select the most robust strains which have high growth rate and high lipid content at 40°C. Afterword the promising strains were cultivated in different growth media for further outdoor cultivation. Seven unicellular strains were able to grow fast with high lipid accumulation at 40°C; two from them can grow in synthetic human urine (SHU) as a synthetic wastewater. Lipid quantification has been done using Nile red stain method. Toxicity experiment carried out using Artemia salina shrimps to avoid using any toxic strains in outdoor cultivation. In addition, the promising strains were identified at molecular level by 18S and 16S rDNA sequencing.