Abstract
The increasing demand for water, food and energy poses challenges for the world´s sustainability. Tropical palm oil is currently the major source of vegetable oil worldwide with a production that exceeds 55 million tons per year, while generating over 200 million tons of palm oil mill effluent (POME). It could potentially be used as a substrate for production of microalgal biomass though. In this study, the microalgal strain Chlamydomonas biconvexa Embrapa|LBA40, originally isolated from a sugarcane vinasse stabilization pond, was selected among 17 strains tested for growth in POME retrieved from anaerobic ponds of a palm oil industrial plant located within the Amazon rainforest region. During cultivation in POME, C. biconvexa Embrapa|LBA40 biomass productivity reached 190.60 mgDW • L-1 • d-1 using 15L airlift flat plate photobioreactors. Carbohydrates comprised the major fraction of algal biomass (31.96%), while the lipidic fraction reached up to 11.3% of dry mass. Reductions of 99% in ammonium and nitrite, as well as 98% reduction in phosphate present in POME were detected after 5 days of algal cultivation. This suggests that the aerobic pond stage, usually used in palm oil industrial plants to reduce POME inorganic load, could be substituted by high rate photobioreactors, significantly reducing the time and area requirements for wastewater treatment. In addition, the complete mitochondrial genome of C. biconvexa Embrapa|LBA40 strain was sequenced, revealing a compact mitogenome, with 15.98 kb in size, a total of 14 genes, of which 9 are protein coding genes. Phylogenetic analysis confirmed the strain taxonomic status within the Chlamydomonas genus, opening up opportunities for future genetic modification and molecular breeding programs in these species.
Highlights
Water, food and energy security, in a context of climatic changes, are major worldwide challenges for the 21st century
Screening of microalgae strains for growth in anaerobic pond palm oil mill effluent
The growth rate differences observed among closely related strains
Summary
Food and energy security, in a context of climatic changes, are major worldwide challenges for the 21st century. Brazil has one of the most advanced and well-established biofuel policies among BRICS nations and the developed economies of the world [2,3]. Since the adoption of the National Fuel Alcohol Program (proalcool), in 1975, and the National Program of Production and Use of Biodiesel (PNPB), in 2004, the country has leveraged its production of biofuels and has become the second largest bioethanol and biodiesel producer in the world. The country’s light fleet is largely composed of flex-fuel vehicles and a National Biofuel Policy (RenovaBio) was established in 2017 to increase the production and use of biofuels through the commercialization of decarbonization credits [3,4]. Brazil is the nineth world’s producer of palm oil concentrating the large majority of its plantations within the Amazon rainforest
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