Optimization of lipid content in microalgae biomass using diluted palm oil mill effluent by varying nutrient ration

Abstract

The oil palm is one of the world’s most rapidly expanding equatorial crops. In Malaysia, oil palm plantation currently occupies the largest acreage of farmed land and the palm oil industry is growing rapidly. Malaysia is one of the major palm oil producers in the world (Lam et al., 2009). While the palm oil industry has been recognized strongly for its contribution toward economic growth and rapid development, it has also contributed to environmental pollution due to the production of large quantities of by-products during the process of oil extraction (Parthasarathy et al., 2016). Microalgal culture has received more attention, given its prospects as a source of bioenergy and its potential for wastewater treatment. In this respect, simple and easily cultivated biomass has a number of applications, ranging from its direct use such as biodiesel and various pigments (Fulton, 2004). The complication of cultivation methods and the high cost of growth medium have become a major drawback for the algal industry; nevertheless, the integration along with wastewater treatment has provided a feasible solution due to the fact that exploitation of wastewater as the source of growth medium simultaneously eliminates the requirement for an expensive medium and at also remediates the wastewater. © 2017 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.