Potency of Botryococcus braunii cultivated on palm oil mill effluent wastewater as a source of biofuel

摘要

Indonesia is known as the largest oil palm producer in the world. However, along with the production, it generates wastes and pollution that caused the environmental problem in surrounding areas. Previous researchers reported that the high palm oil mill effluent (POME) concentration inhibited microalgae growth. However, the inhibition factor was not dearly explained by using kinetic model. This study presents kinetic models of Botryococcus braunii (B. braunii) cultivated on POME wastewater under different turbidity condition. Results showed that the growth model of Zwietering was closely suitable with experimental results. It was found that B. braunii was able to consume organic carbon from the POME wastewater on the logarithmic model. A modified kinetic model of Monod Haldane described the influence of turbidity and chemical oxygen demand on the cultivation. Turbidity of POME medium inhibited the growth rate at KI 3.578 and KII 179.472 NTU, respectively. The Lipid (39.9%), and carbohydrate (41.03%) were found in the biomass that could be utilized as biofuel source.