Evaluation of Sugar Mill By-product Molasses as a Low Cost Culture Media for Microalgae

Microalga Chlorella vulgaris was cultured in different concentrations of normal molasses medium (NMM0.5 g/l, NMM1.0 g/l, and NMM1.5 g/l) to evaluate growth performance of the sugar mill byproduct as a low cost culture media and Bold basal medium (BBM) as control. Maximum growth of Chlorella vulgaris was found in NMM 1.0 g/l on 8th day of the culture followed by BBM, NMM 0.5 g/l and NMM 1.5 g/l. Similar findings were also observed in determining chlorophyll a content and optical density of C. vulgaris. Maximum cell growths 191.88 (Χ 105)/mL, chlorophyll a content 10.60 (mg/l) and optical density 2.15 were recorded in NMM1.0 g/l. Maximum SGR of cell was determined 0.56 (mg/day) grown in NMM1.0 g/l followed by 0.52, 0.52 and 0.48 (mg/day) in BBM, NMM0.5 g/l and NMM1.5 g/l, respectively. Chlorophyll a content and total biomass of Chlorella vulgaris followed the similar trend. Protein (46.49%) and lipid (14.18%) of C. vulgaris was detected significantly higher (P<0.01) in NMM1.0 g/l than that grown in BBM and other concentrations of NMM. The growth performance of the investigating molasses medium (NMM1.0 g/l) indicates that the molasses may be a good low cost culture medium ingredient source for C. vulgaris or any other microalga species.