Abstract
The growth of Chlorella vulgaris in open pond aquatic conditions poses serious challenges due to the interplay of both physico-chemical and biotic factors. We report here the monitoring of physico-chemical and biotic parameters affecting the propagation of C. vulgaris seed culture for inoculation of a large scale raceway pond (300 000 L capacity) in South Africa. The C . vulgaris strain used for this purpose was isolated from a wastewater maturation pond and characterized for its potential for biomass and lipid production. The isolate was grown aseptically in 4 × 25 L aspirator bottles in BG-11 medium under ambient laboratory conditions and the culture was supplied with filtered air and exposed to 200 µmol photons per m 2 per second using Gro-Lux agricultural fluorescent lights. The culture was transferred to a 500 L capacity portable pool under open conditions. This pond was used to further inoculate 3 more portable ponds. Physico-chemical and biotic growth parameters were monitored on a daily basis in the three ponds. The over reliance on fossil fuels will have a major impact on power supply in the near future if renewable sources of energy are not developed at a fast pace. The developed inoculum was subsequently used to inoculate an open raceway pond for large scale biomass production for biodiesel production. Keywords: Biodiesel, biomass, inoculum, lipid, raceway pond, seed culture African Journal of Biotechnology , Vol 13(31) 3607-3616
Highlights
Phy ysico-c chemic cal and d biotic c facto ors inflluencin ng m microalgal seed culture propaga ation ffor inoculatio on of a e scale e racew way po ond large
We report h here the mo onitoring of physicochemical an nd biotic parrameters affe ecting the prropagation o of C. vulgaris s seed culturre for inocula ation of a large scale e raceway po ond
Similar work done by Grobbelaar(2009) support the assumption that continued growth of microalgal cells in batch culture could negatively impact on their viability and resuscitation and rejuvenation of these cells can lead to failure when transferred to large scale raceway pond
Summary
Phy ysico-c chemic cal and d biotic c facto ors inflluencin ng m microalgal seed culture propaga ation ffor inoculatio on of a e scale e racew way po ond large. The growth h of Chlorella a vulgaris in n open pond aquatic con nditions pose es serious c challenges due to the interplay of o both phys sico-chemica al and biotic factors. W. We report h here the mo onitoring of physicochemical an nd biotic parrameters affe ecting the prropagation o of C. vulgaris s seed culturre for inocula ation of a large scale e raceway po ond The cultture was transferred to a 500 L capacity po ortable pool under open n conditions. This pond was used tto further inoculate 3 more portab ble ponds.
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