Monitoring growth and lipid production of some Egyptian microalgae

Abstract EN

Microalgae biodiesel is a green and renewable energy resource.

This study aims to examine growth and lipid production by various isolates of microalgae using different growth media and lipid extraction techniques.

Ten microalgae isolates were isolated from different samples collected from Egypt.

The purified isolates were identified microscopically as: Lyngbya confervoides, Phormidium bohneri, Oscillatoria pseudogeminata, Amorphonostoc sp., Nostoc paludosum, Anabaena sphaerica related to cyanobacteria (blue green algae) and Chlorella vulgaris, Chlorella ellipsoidea, Scenedesmusacutus acutus, Chlamydomonas globose related to green algae.

These organisms were cultivated on two media: Bold's Basal Medium (BBM medium) and Blue Green Medium (BG-11 medium) to examine the favorite medium which supports the growth of each isolate.

In order to examine lipid production potentials by cyanobacterial isolates and green microalgae, two solvent systems were applied for lipid extraction, the first was (Chloroform-methanol 1:1) and the second was (Hexaneethanol 1:1).

Chlorella vulgaris and Anabaena sphaerica were selected as models of green microalgae and cyanobacteria respectively.

Hexane-ethanol solvent system revealed higher lipid extraction capacity as compared to Chloroform-methanol system.

A comparison between ten organisms for lipid production was carried out by the selected solvent mixture.

The percentages of lipid to dry weight produced by Oscillatoria pseudogeminata and Chlamydomonas globose were 19.8% and 14.6% respectively recording the highest lipid to dry weight percentage.

They can be considered as a promising lipid producing microalgae.