he MAMBO project, supported by several Italian biodiesel producers (led by NOVAOL) and their associations Assocostieri, addresses the production of microalgae for biodiesel production. Given the large scale of the biofuel market, raceway ponds have been considered as an unavoidable component of any industrial system aimed at producing biomass derived fuels in sufficient amounts. Nevertheless, innovation in raceway pond design has been very limited in recent years,maybe due to the high price (and low volume) of the current commercial microalgae-derived products, and therefore a modest interest in reducing costs of these productions. Among various activities, MAMBO focused its investigation on key issue for raceway pond design, and the possibility of improving their performances in terms of energy demand and microalgae concentration for downstream processes. Two pilot units have been designed, built and operated, to achieve a better understanding of the flow field and the microalgae behavior during cultivation. A reference traditional raceway pond has also been constructed, to compare and validate results, and hotobioreactors were also operated in parallel so to have a further comparison. A preliminary analysis identified a number of key elements to be considered before re-designing the raceway pond, such as culture depth, fluid flow, turbulence and mixing, heat exchange, and CO2 addition. A number of theoretical and experimental activities have been implemented to identify the optimum solutions. Then, microalgae have been cultivated under these innovative conditions. Results from the experimental campaign confirmed the possibility of achieving a considerable reduction of both energy demand (reduced by ~75% up to ~90% substituting the paddle wheel system) and water use (reduced by ~50%), a significant step forward in microalgae cultivation. This innovative approach will also facilitate the downstream biofuel production processes.