Biomass productivity and lipid content between natural mixed culture consortia and artificial mixed culture

Abstract

The interaction amongst microalgae might hold the key to the increase of biomass and lipid production from microalgae culture. A mixed culture of microalgae shows to have a higher biomass and lipid content than a single culture. A local mixed culture from Glagah Beach, Yogyakarta, later called Glagah strain is one of the natural mixed culture. Several microalgae species have a high biomass either lipid content and the biomass and lipid possibly get higher in mixed culture. There were 2 treated microalgae mixed culture in this research, there were natural mixed culture and artificial mixed culture, while Glagah strain as the control. Natural mixed culture was composed of Glagah strain, and 3 different microalgae species, they were Tetraselmis sp., Spirulina sp., Chlorella zofingiensis Dönz, and Bottryococcus sp. Artificial mixed culture was composed only those 4 microalgae species. The aims of this research were know the microalgae density, biomass, and lipid content on the Glagah strain, natural mixed culture, and artificial mixed culture. It used Bold’s Basal Medium (BBM) 2N to cultivate the 3 kind of cultures for 10 days. Density, biomass, and lipid content of the microalgae cultures were measured. The result shows that the natural mixed culture had a higher total cells than the artificial mixed culture which are 7,350,00 cells in the seventh day. The natural mixed culture also showed to has a higher lipid content than the artificial mixed culture by 0.004 mg. The natural mixed culture has a higher lipid content than the artificial mixed culture and Glagah strain at the fourth day, which were 0.0015 mg. It can be concluded that the natural mixed culture had rapid growth and higher biomass productivity compared to the artificial mixed culture but still lesser than Glagah strain. The artificial mixed culture had a higher lipid content compared to Glagah strain and natural mixed cultures.