The low productivity of microalgae has restricted scale-up application of microalgae-based biodiesel processes. Diethyl aminoethyl hexanoate (DA-6) was investigated to enhance the biomass and metabolite productivity. At a very low concentration (10 (7) M) DA-6 made Chlorella ellipsoidea SDEC-11 and Scenedesmus quadricauda SDEC-13 obtain enlarged cell size, 114 mg L (1) d (1), 101 mg L (1) d (1) biomass productivity and 39.13 mg L (1) d (1), 32.69 mg L (1) d (1) lipid productivity, respectively. Biomass and lipid productivity of SDEC-11 and SDEC-13 were 100 mg L (1) d (1) and 30.05 mg L (1) d (1), 94 mg L (1) d(1) and 28.43 mg L (1) d (1), respectively, without DA-6. Twice hormone dose in 106 M DA-6 medium resulted in higher biomass productivity (106 mg L (1) d (1)) and longer exponential growth of SDEC-13. DA-6 also ensured the property of microalgae biodiesel to meet the EN 14214 standard. The current investigation demonstrated that DA-6 accelerated the microalgae growth and simultaneously improved the quality and quantity of lipid for biodiesel production. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.