Abstract
Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is a type of wastewater posing large problems when discharged in the environment. Yet, due to its high nutrient content, POME may offer opportunities for algal growth and subsequent harvesting of high-value products. The marine diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum is a potential feedstock diatom for bioactive compounds such as the carotenoid fucoxanthin, which has been shown to have pharmaceutical applications. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the growth and fucoxanthin productivity of P. tricornutum grown on POME, as a function of light intensity, temperature, salinity, and nutrient enrichment. High-saturating irradiance (300 μmol photons m−2 s−1) levels at 25 °C showed highest growth rates but decreased the fucoxanthin productivity of P. tricornutum. Box-Behnken response surface methodology revealed that the optimum fucoxanthin productivity was influenced by temperature, salinity, and the addition of urea. Nutrient enrichment by phosphorus did not enhance cell density and fucoxanthin productivity, while urea addition was found to stimulate both. We conclude that POME wastewater, supplemented with urea, can be considered as the potential medium for P. tricornutum to replace commercial nutrients while producing high amounts of fucoxanthin.
Highlights
The possibility of utilizing wastewater as growth medium for microalgae with the aim to produce value-added products receives increasing attention due to its high economic sustainability (Ravindran et al 2016; De Francisci et al 2018)
The growth rate of P. tricornutum growing on f/2 medium without Palm oil mill effluent (POME) varied significantly with temperature and irradiance (Fig. 1)
Fucoxanthin content was significantly lower at ML and high light intensities (HL) compared to LL for each temperature (p < 0.01)
Summary
The possibility of utilizing wastewater as growth medium for microalgae with the aim to produce value-added products receives increasing attention due to its high economic sustainability (Ravindran et al 2016; De Francisci et al 2018). In this respect, the marine diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum has gained much attention in the last decades. The marine diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum has gained much attention in the last decades This is due to its ability to grow in large-scale facilities, while producing bioactive compounds such as pigments which might benefit human health (Leu and Boussiba 2014). To the best of our knowledge, the utilization of POME wastewater for the cultivation of the marine diatom P. tricornutum has not been explored
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