Abstract:
Microalgae as source of renewable energy are very potential due to
high biomass productivity and lipid content. The nutritious culture
for microalgae cultivation, however, should be concerned to be affordable and
feasible. Here, the utilization of peat swamp culture for microalgal cultivation
was studied in comparison to the nutritious pure water. The effects of
photoperiod and nitrogen sources on biomass were conducted as well.
Compared to the commercial microalgae, the microalgae isolated from peat
swamp showed excellent performance with the faster growth time of 10 days
as well as higher biomass and its productivity of 1.72 g L−1 and 0.16 g L−1 d−1,
respectively. Even for the commercial microalgae, the cultivation process
using the peat swamp water led to increase in biomass by 17.2% and its
productivity by 10% compared to that using the nutritious pure water. The
proposed kinetic model with a modification to the modified Gompertz model
showed an excellent prediction with the experimental data as R2 of 0.985 was
obtained. The model could well envisage the initial biomass and lag
phase compared to the original model. Hence, the model is deemed beneficial
for the research development for implementation in high scale of microalgal
cultivation.
