Identification of Potential Culture Conditions for Enhancing the Biomass Production of Microalga Chlorella minutissima

Identification of Potential Culture Conditions for Enhancing the Biomass Production of Microalga Chlorella minutissima

Microalgae have been considered as appropriate source of various commercial products due to their enormous potential of growth, higher content of biochemical product like sugars, lipids, proteins and pigments, high CO2 tolerance etc. But these organisms are easily affected by environmental factors due to their minute size. So it is necessary to find potential culture conditions of microalgae so maximum biomass can be achieved in short duration of time under lab settings. In this study, effects of various components of culture conditions on biomass of microalga Chlorella minutissima were recorded. Based on the result of biomass production, potential culture conditions have been summarized for microalgae Chlorella minutissima. Among six different media tested, N-11, BBM and BG-11 media were found suitable for this microalga. Although with nitrogen starvation, BBM and BG-11 were found to be the potential media. Potential source of nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon were sodium & potassium nitrate, di-potassium hydrogen phosphate & potassium di hydrogen phosphate and glycerol respectively. The suitable concentration of nitrate, phosphate, and glycerol were 0.375 g/l, 0.16 g/l and 12.5 g/l. Alkaline pH was found suitable for this microalgae to provide higher biomass. Chlorella minutissima has shown better biomass production in 24 hours of illumination of white light of 20 W tube light and shaking period of 2 hours in Erlenmeyer flasks.