Nannochloropsis oceanica is famous for its strong environmental adaptability and oil-richness, especially high eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) content. In this report, the possibility and cultivation parameters for N. oceanica using natural crude soda were testified and compared with seawater culture. To keep a suitable salinity range, different ratio of sea salt addition into soda lake water were used and the growth, lipid content, F-v/F-m and fatty acids profiling were inspected with nitrogen repletion or depletion. The results showed the best performance were achieved while 18 g/L (salinity 25%) sea salt was added into crude soda solution. The mu(max) and EPA content in fatty acids were 0.72/0.42 and 36%/23% in 500 mL/100 L bioreactor cultivations respectively, which maintained a relative high productivity to other reports. By comparing the growth and operations with Spirulina production, the feasibility of N. Oceanica in Ordos was proved on both technical and economical point of view. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.