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Anaerobic digester sludge as nutrient source for culturing of microalgae for economic biodiesel production

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Abstract

After decades of ‘living dangerously’, the human kind has paused to think of Mother Nature. Alternate energy sources are being developed as a part of this realization. The use of indigenous sources of nutrients would considerably bring down the cost of production. A mixed consortium of Chlorella vulgaris, Arthrospira platensis, and tap water-originated Scenedesmus dimorphus was cultured using natural seawater, anaerobic digester sludge, and its growth was compared with synthetic commercial media like Zarrouk’s media, NaNO3 media, and NH4Cl media. A spectrophotometric method was standardized for regular biomass estimation. The dry biomass of a 15-day pure, batch culture of Arthrospira was found to yield around 600 mg/L in anaerobic digester sludge, whereas the pure batch culture of chlorella’s growth was hindered mainly due to the presence of bacteria and grazers. Regular microscopic observation and biomass monitoring revealed a drastic reduction in grazing activity, with the use of autoclaved AD sludge, resulting in a strong and stable microalgal mixed consortia. The consortia growth in AD sludge was found to be better than with the synthetic media with no cost of nutrient. The mixed consortia yielded a biomass up to 600 mg/L and lipid of 21.18%. The lipid generated from AD sludge had around 95% unsaturates and contained around 5% omega-3 fatty acids. The use of anaerobic digester sludge in a non-sterile condition reduces the total cost of the biodiesel production process as a whole and introduces a decentralized system for waste water treatment as well.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to, Mr. Rajendra Prasad, NIIST, for his assistance in carrying out the experiments, Ms. Aswathy U and Ms. Sayana C R for her assistance in analysis of samples. The authors are grateful to BRSI for the opportunity to present the work at the ICCB’16.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Technology (NITC), Calicut, India

    N. Sreekumar & N. Selvaraju

  2. National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST), Thiruvananthapuram, India

    A. J. Chennattussery & A. Mariya

  3. Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati, India

    N. Selvaraju

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  1. N. Sreekumar
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  2. A. J. Chennattussery
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  3. A. Mariya
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  4. N. Selvaraju
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Correspondence to N. Selvaraju.

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Editorial responsibility: J Aravind.

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Sreekumar, N., Chennattussery, A.J., Mariya, A. et al. Anaerobic digester sludge as nutrient source for culturing of microalgae for economic biodiesel production. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 15, 2607–2614 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-017-1491-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-017-1491-z

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