Algae oil:  Algal biomass consists of natural oils, proteins, and carbohydrates. Oil produced from algae is very similar in structure to oil derived from plants and vegetables such as soy, palm, and rapeseed. Oils, along with fats, are composed of triglycerides--three fatty acids attached to a glycerol and can thus be considered as potential substitutes for the products of fossil oil. The number of carbon in the carbon chain of the diesel oil molecular is about 15, so the raw materials for Biodiesel is preferred that contain large proportions of fatty acid triglycerides.

              In algae the desaturation of carbon chain of fatty acid occurs from C18 and further elongation of carbon chain takes place to produce long-chain fatty acids which are unusual in normal plant oils. Long-chain fatty acids (C20–C22) often exist in micro algae and the content varies from species to species. Normally, short-chain fatty acids (C14–C18) which are the main components of biodiesel are majority of fatty acids in Chlorella sp., but high content of long-chain fatty acid and hydrocarbons exist in some specific species of micro algae. So, It is vital to choose proper micro algae species as materials of biodiesel production. According to biodiesel standard published by the American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM), biodiesel from micro algal oil is similar in properties to the standard biodiesel, and is also more stable according to their flash point values.

    SVO:The algal-oil feedstock that is used to produce biodiesel can also be used for fuel directly as "Straight Vegetable Oil", (SVO). The benefit of using the oil in this manner is that it doesn't require the additional energy needed for transesterification, (processing the oil with an alcohol and a catalyst to produce biodiesel). The drawback is that it does require modifications to a normal diesel engine. Transesterified biodiesel can be run in an unmodified modern diesel engine.