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Microalgal biotechnology has been commercially viable for several decades, butonly for a restricted range of applications (Benemann et al. 1987). Owing to therelatively high capital cost of microalgal production systems, successful applicationshave generally focussed either upon niche areas in which both modern agricultureand microbial fermentation systems lack a competitive advantage or uponunique microalgal products, for which no competition exists. Although the largestexisting algae farms are still for health food production (e.g. Spirulina productionin China) and natural products (e.g. Dunaliella in Australia for b-carotene), thoseundergoing the most rapid expansion are currently aimed at biofuel productionand associated RaD. The microalgal industry is growing rapidly, and while microalgalbiofuel technologies generally remain in the basic and applied RaD stage(IEA 2011a), commercial-scale facilities are starting to come online. For photoautotrophicproduction, these include Sapphire Energyrs 120ha (300ac) IntegratedAlgal Biorefinery (IABR) facility currently under construction in New Mexico,USA (Sapphire 2011; US D.O.E. Energy Efficiency a Renewable Energy 2011), whileSolazymers factories have focused on heterotrophic conversion of sugars to oilsand other products (Solazyme 2011; Dillon 2011). [extract]