The Usage of Palm Oil Mill Effluent as a Cultivation Medium of Arthrospira maxima Setchell et Gardner

Abstract

The increasing of palm oil production leads to enhance waste produced by palm oil production. The most enormous wasted from palm oil industry is Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME). POME is a liquid waste which is not utilized very well, but has has minerals such as N, P, K, Ca and Mg. Those minerals Are used as nutrients for microalgae cultivation. This research was conducted to study the effect of POME as microalgae cultivation medium on Arthrospira maxima since the microalgae has a high regeneration, easy to cultivated, and produce various macromolecules. The POME was diluted in 5%, 10%, and 15%. The microalgae cultivation was running in 11 days in the 500 mL medium. Cell density, biomass, chlorophyll, carbohydrate, and protein were used as parameters. It showed that POME could enhance growth, carbohydrate and protein of A. maxima. The most optimal treatment for enhancing carbohydrate and protein was at concentration 15% of POME which respectively were 346.97 mg.L-1 and 0.48 mg.mL-1