Effects of aeration intensity as agitation in simple photobioreactors on leptolyngbya (cyanobacteria) growth as biofuel feedstock

Abstract

Indonesia known as a hotspot of biodiversity, including cyanobacteria biodiversity. One member of cyanobacteria (prokaryotic algae) is Leptolyngbya. Leptolyngbya HS-16 is an isolate that had been isolated from hot spring in Red Crater of Gunung Pancar, Sentul, Bogor. As mats-producing microalgae, this strain is a very promising source of Biofuel. Biofuel can be extracted from lipid of microalgal biomass. Bioreactor is a method to encourage the growth of microalgal biomass. To get a best result in growth, agitation must be done, to make sure every single cell of microalgae gets the adequate nutrition. The aeration on simple photobioreactors is set to high and low intensity. The high intensity of aerations average amount are 191 bubble/min, while the low intensity one are 117 bubble/min, with a device that could produce smaller bubble size to reduce the aeration-agitation effect. The research was done to acknowledge the effect of aeration intensity to Leptolygnbya HS-16.

Biomass Production and Lipid Content of Leptolyngbya HS-16 grown in Bubble Column Photobioreactors (BCPBR) with Air Bubbler Pore Variation

“…From the figure 2 above, we know that Leptolyngbya HS-16 that cultured in BCPBR2 produce more biomass rather than the one that cultured in BCPBR1. That could happen because the nutrients in BCPBR2 are mixed better rather than in BCPBR1 21) . The amount of bubbles can also affect microorganism growth in photobioreactor because the bubbles can cause shear stress, and it will break the cells 22) .…”