Biodiesel production from microalgae has become a popular research topic. In this study, Chlamydomonas sp. JSC4 isolated from the southern coast of Taiwan was selected for a detailed study on cell growth and lipid accumulation under marine salinity (3.5% sea salt). Proper CO2 was supplied as the improvement of lipid productivity. Under the optimal condition, the highest lipid productivity was 169.1 mg/L/d, which was significantly higher than those reported in current studies for marine green algae. To date, only very few studies have reported a marine algae strain with both high cell growth and lipid productivity. This study demonstrated that a newly isolated marine green alga Chlamydomonas sp. JSC4 would be a feasible oil producer due to its high biomass production and lipid productivity under marine salinity. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.