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An Integrated Approach for Simultaneous Monitoring and Data Acquisition on the Culture of Green Microalga Chlorella homosphaera Using Different LED Illumination

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Abstract

Microalgae are considered one of the potent renewable energy sources; however, the microalgal biofuel technology is economically unsustainable due to higher biomass production costs. Radical reformations in microalgae culture and adequate data acquisition can significantly help optimize the microalgae biomass production and make the process economically viable. In the present study, a semiconductor-based microalgal culture experimentation setup was developed with automated monitoring capabilities. The capability of the TCS3200 color sensor to monitor the growth of the Chlorella homosphaera in real time was investigated by correlating the sensor data with spectrophotometer readings and found to be highly capable. The highest biomass productivity (0.38 g L−1 day−1) was achieved using pink and cool-white LED illumination. Furthermore, pink LED illumination recorded the highest lipid production (0.19 g L−1), which was 26.20% higher than cool-white LED. The initial experimentation generated 2300 data sets of color, light intensity, and temperature, showing the system’s capabilities to collect sufficient data to implement sophisticated computational algorithms for optimization.

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Funding

The authors would like to acknowledge DBT, the Government of India, for providing financial support (Grant No- DBT/IC-2/Indo-Brazil/2016–19/04). K. Eldiehy would like to acknowledge the ICCR of India and the Ministry of Higher Education of Egypt for offering him a scholarship to pursue the Ph.D.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biomass Conversion Laboratory, Department of Energy, Tezpur University, Assam, India

    Doljit Borah & Dhanapati Deka

  2. Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Tezpur University, Assam, India

    Khalifa S. H. Eldiehy & Manabendra Mandal

  3. Department of Botany and Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University, Assiut, Egypt

    Khalifa S. H. Eldiehy

  4. Applied Photonics and Nanophotonics Lab, Department of Physics, Tezpur University, Assam, India

    Diganta Hatiboruah

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  1. Doljit Borah
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  2. Khalifa S. H. Eldiehy
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Correspondence to Doljit Borah.

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Borah, D., Eldiehy, K.S.H., Hatiboruah, D. et al. An Integrated Approach for Simultaneous Monitoring and Data Acquisition on the Culture of Green Microalga Chlorella homosphaera Using Different LED Illumination. Bioenerg. Res. 16, 601–610 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12155-022-10452-y

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