Modeling the effects of light sources on the growth of algae

Sutamas Satthong,Wannapong Triampo,Somkid Amornsamankul,Pongpatai Kitrungloadjanaporn,Narin Nuttavut,Kritsana Saego

doi:10.1186/s13662-019-2112-6

Abstract

Algae are fast growing microorganisms and beneficial in many ways, especially concerning food supplement, alternative energy, and wastewater treatment. Naturally, they need a light:dark regime for productive photosynthesis. To have more insight into how light affects their growth, we investigate the effect of light sources (fluorescent and LED) on algae growth both experimentally and computationally via modeling. It was found that growth in the fluorescent light source is relatively better than in other sources. Computational data analyses and detailed discussions are presented. Lastly, a more generalized growth model of microalgae for incorporation of other factors and variables is necessary for more realistic modeling of real-world systems.

Highlights

The problem of worldwide food shortage and malnutrition has brought us the intention of algae production as an alternative food supply because of their richness in proteins and vitamins including B1, B2, B6, and B12
Algae are used as the main food supply for rotifers and the supplementary food for larvae of marine fish [1]
Water treatment as a by-product of algae production has shown a potential result of reducing the COD and BOD with 93–97% and 93% efficiency, respectively

Summary

Introduction

The problem of worldwide food shortage and malnutrition has brought us the intention of algae production as an alternative food supply because of their richness in proteins and vitamins including B1, B2, B6, and B12. Water treatment as a by-product of algae production has shown a potential result of reducing the COD and BOD with 93–97% and 93% efficiency, respectively. It was reported that under the red LED light it has an optimal condition for the growth of C. vulgaris in the experiment prepared in flask volume 1 L. Shu et al [5] found that the algae cultivated under the LED light condition have a different growth rate compared to the algae under fluorescent light condition. The previous study has shown that growing microalgae under red wavelength has higher growth rate than under white, yellow, purple, blue, and green, respectively. Red light is the optimal wavelength to grow C. C. Vulgaris under red LED light reaches the highest

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Methods