Investigations of Light Intensities, Nutrient, and Carbon Sources Towards Microalgae Oil Production via Soxhlet Extraction Techniques

Abstract

This study was carried out to study the optimized condition for microalgae cultivation in terms of light intensity, and nutrient supply. Also, use of a carbon source was studied to optimize the microalgae growth to produce microalgae with a high biomass productivity and a high lipid content. Algae can be categorized into macroalgae and microalgae. Commonly, microalgae are used to produce biodiesel since microalgae can yield 5000-15000 of oil gallons compared to plant-based biomass as feedstock produced 50-500 oil gallon. Furthermore, microalgae do not face any food crisis and can be cultivated in any wasteland that is not suitable for agriculture throughout the year, compared to crops. Microalgae can also be cultivated in freshwater, saline water and wastewater. Microalgae cultivation was carried out with microalgae culture labelled as MX1, MX2, MX3, MX4 and were cultivated under high light intensities, whereas MY1, MY2, MY3, MY4 were cultivated under medium light intensity and MZ1, MZ2, MZ3 MZ4 became control culture that was cultivated under high light intensities and no light condition. The effect of light intensity, NPK fertilizer, and glucose on microalgae’s biomass production will be observed simultaneously. At the end of cultivation, MX2 obtained the highest biomass of 97.186 g. The oil extraction yield is 9.66%. GC-MS analysis showed the presence of UFA and PUFA in the oil. Thus, future research is needed to improve the technique to increase the microalgae biomass and lipid to become the potential feedstock for the production of biodiesel.