No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Extensive usage of nonrenewable fossil fuels has urged the community to look into alternate renewable energy such as biofuels. The production of biofuels, including bioethanol, biohydrogen, biodiesel, etc., from crop plants again leads to food insecurity. Hence, the usage of algae, particularly green algae, is the best alternatives to generate biofuels. In the present study, the effects of various factors involved in algal growth in turn bioethanol and biohydrogen production levels were established by choosing green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Specifically, we crosschecked the effect of heavy metal Cobalt (Co), sodium bicarbonate, and Tris-acetate-phosphate (TAP) medium without Tris base on growth and biofuel production from C. reinhardtii under in vitro conditions. In the current work, 0.2 mg/l Co in TAP medium enhanced the growth and biomass in C. reinhardtii cultures. Furthermore, ethanol production levels were improved in feedstocks grown in TAP medium with 2.0 mg/l sodium bicarbonate. In another experiment, hydrogen production was high in full TAP medium with Tris (trisaminomethane) base when compared to TAP without Tris base. In conclusion, this work may be useful to improve the biomass and biofuel production in green algae.

It is a well-known fact that heavy metal stress is one of the serious threats to agricultural yield. In the present work, heavy metal screening was carried out using chromium (Cr), lead (Pb) and manganese (Mn) independently on finger millet [Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.] seed and seedling growth under in vitro conditions. Adverse effects of chromium on finger millet seed germination as well as seedling architectural damage were noticed from 10 ppm onwards. Particularly, 30 and 15 % of seed germination was noticed at 50 and 100 ppm concentrations of chromium, respectively. But the extremely toxic lead did not prove its toxic nature when compared to chromium and even at 100 ppm concentration the reduction of seed germination and seedling growth were minor. Manganese promoted the seed germination even at 50 and 100 ppm concentrations. In ICP-OES (inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometer) analysis, contents of residual nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium and sulphur were reduced in seedlings grown on media containing high concentrations of chromium which indicated the toxic levels of this particular metal in this crop. In addition, the sulphur content slightly increased in seedlings treated with higher concentration of lead and showed almost double amount in seedlings treated with high concentration of manganese. The contents of microelements varied with different treatments and as expected content of managense increased in seedlings treated with high concentration of manganese.