Preliminary study on the growth of Tetraselmis suecica in centred-light photobioreactor (CLPBR)

Abstract

Over the past decade, there has been a sustained research on renewable fuel known as biofuel due to the reliance upon fossil fuel. Oil obtained from microalgae is a viable approach for biodiesel production to reduce the reliability on fossil fuel. In this study, the Tetraselmis suecica is cultivated in 5L centred-light Photobioreactor (CLPBR) to investigate the effect of pH and light intensity on cell concentration and lipid content of microalgae. Different pH (6.5, 8.5, 10.5) and light intensity (200 lux, 1000 lux, 2000 lux) were used to test their effect on algal growth and lipid production. The results showed that the highest cell concentration (4 mL/mL) and lipid content (18 %) was obtained at pH of 10.5. At 1000 lux light intensity, the highest cell concentration and lipid content was 0.898 mL/mL and 19% respectively. The two models that are tested to determine the growth kinetics are Logistic and Gompertz model. The R2 obtained from Logistic and Gompertz model was 0.8852 and 0.8736 respectively. The results demonstrate that both models was least accurate to predict the algal growth.