TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - BIOLOGY - Preferred Method: The microorganism releases at least one free fatty acid into the culture medium. The microorganism exhibits greater viability in the medium comprising a soap-forming counterion (0.5 mM) than in a medium that comprises a carboxylate counterion (0.25 mM) in the culture medium. The calcium salt is added to the standard culture medium. The culture medium is a calcium-supplemented standard culture medium having the same composition as a standard culture medium with the exception that a greater amount of calcium is present in the calcium-supplemented culture medium with respect to the standard culture medium. Preferred Components: The medium contains calcium in an at least 2-fold amount as compared to a standard medium. The medium contains at least 10 (preferably 1) mM of calcium. The microorganism comprises an exogenous nucleic acid molecule encoding a thioesterase and/or a lipase. The thioesterase is an acyl-acyl carrier protein (ACP) thioesterase, an acyl-coenzyme A (CoA) thioesterase or a hydroxylbenzoyl-CoA thioesterase. The lipase is a member of the Pfam AB hydrolase clan CL0028. The amino acid sequence of the lipase has an E-value parameter of 0.01 or less when queried using the Pfam HMM-profiles for any of Pfam 01674, Pfam 01764, Pfam 07819, Pfam 03583, and Pfam 00151. The microorganism is a photosynthetic microorganism including fresh water microalgae and cyanobacterium. The microalgae is e.g. Achnanthes, Amphiprora, Amphora, Ankistrodesmus, Asteromonas, Boekelovia, Borodinella, Botryococcus, Bracteacoccus, Chaetoceros, Carteria, Chlamydomonas, Chlorococcum, Chlorogonium, Chlorella, Chroomonas, Chrysosphaera, Cricosphaera, Crypthecodinium, Cryptomonas, Cyclotella, Dunaliella, Ellipsoidon, Emiliania, Eremosphaera, Ernodesmius, Euglena, Franceia and Fragilaria. The cyanobacterium is e.g. Agmenellum, Anabaena, Anabaenopsis, Anacystis, Aphanizomenon, Arthrospira, Asterocapsa, Borzia, Calothrix, Chamaesiphon, Chlorogloeopsis, Chroococcidiopsis, Chroococcus, Crinalium, Cyanobacterium, Cyanobium, Cyanocystis, Cyanospira, Cyanothece, Cylindrospermopsis, Cylindrospermum, Dactylococcopsis, Dermocarpella, Fischerella, Fremyella, Geitleria, Geitlerinema, Gloeobacter, Gloeocapsa and Gloeothece.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - INORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Components: The carboxylate counterion source comprises an alkaline earth metal ion source, a transition metal ion source, a multivalent counterion source including divalent counterion source including calcium (preferred) and/or magnesium. The calcium salt is calcium acetate, calcium carbonate, calcium chloride, calcium citrate, calcium gluconate, calcium hydroxide, calcium lactate, calcium nitrate, calcium phosphate, or calcium sulfate.