Hazel Monica Matias-Peralta

Experimental Study for Phycoremediation of Botryococcus sp. On Greywater

Greywater (GW) is identified as waste disposal from home activites that is discharging from laundry, bath and wash-basin. GW useful in irrigation of a garden and aids to reduce cost as well as maintain the environmental prosperity. This paper discussed the effectiveness of Botryococcus sp. to clean GW in phycoremediation treatment. This process involves as growing the Botryococcus sp. in the GW which is contributing to utilize supplements in GW for its grow. The results indicated that Botryococcus sp. is effective to reduce COD (88%), BOD (82%), TIC (76%), TC (58%), TN (52%), TOC (39%), Phosphate (37.5%) and pH (7%) for 100% concentration of GW. Meanwhile, for the 50% of GW concentration Botryococcus sp. capable to remove such as COD (83%), TIC (82%), BOD (68%), TN (67%), Phosphate (36.8%), TC (34%), TOC (31%) and pH (1.2%). Then, the study concludes that Botryococcus sp. can grow effectively in GW and be able to reduce the rate of nutrient in GW.

Phycoremediation of dairy wastewater by using green microlgae: botryococcus sp.

Dairy wastewater are usually much polluted due to the high level of nutrient content such as phosphate, nitrate, sulfate etc. The pollution level are indicated by few characteristics such as BOD (243 mg/L), COD (324 mg/L), pH (9.08), Total Nitrogen (65.06 mg/L), Total Organic Carbon (143.3 mg/L), Total Carbon (312.9 mg/L) and Inorganic Carbon (169.6 mg/L). In this study, Botryococcus sp., a species of green microalgae are used to determine whether it can purify dairy wastewater. In spite of that, the microalgae growth over phycoremediation process also determined daily based on hemocytometer counting. From 100% concentration of dairy wastewater, Botryococcus sp. was capable to reduce the parameters such as BOD of 73.3%, TOC of 65.1%, TC of 61.4%, IC of 58.3% and COD of 48.8% on the 15 days of phycoremediation. Meanwhile, for the 50% of dairy wastewater, the same microalgae be able to remove the parameter such as phosphate of 78.7%, BOD of 73.8%, TOC of 70%, TC of 68,8%, IC of 59.4% and COD of 50%. The overall result from this study shown that the Botryococcus sp. is useful to reduce the inorganic and organic pollutant in dairy wastewater and could be potential to be used for any different wastewater.

Phytoplankton population patterns in marine shrimp culture ponds with different sources of water supply

Six shrimp culture ponds of 1 ha each, located between 101° 22′ E 2° 49′N −101° 22′ E 3° 17′N, were used to elucidate the effects of using eutrophic waters on phytoplankton communities. Three ponds were filled with unpolluted water, while the other three received eutrophic water. Water quality and phytoplankton populations were analyzed fortnightly over a period of 110 days to coincide with the shrimp culture cycle. In ponds with eutrophic water, the cyanobacteria (nine species) were the dominant phytoplankton group (>90% of the total phytoplankton density), followed by the green algae (seven species) and diatoms (six species). Ponds with originally unpolluted water were dominated by the diatoms with 18 species, followed by the cyanobacteria (six species) and one species of green algae. Shrimp production in ponds with unpolluted water was significantly higher (4,877.4 ± 438.5 kg ha-1 when compared to 1,385.0 ± 243.8 kg ha-1 in ponds using eutrophic water. This study illustrated that initial water quality supply influenced the phytoplankton dominance, which in turn determined the aquaculture production in shrimp culture ponds.

Extraction of hydrocarbons from freshwater green microalgae (Botryococcus sp.) biomass after phycoremediation of domestic wastewater

ABSTRACT This study was undertaken to analyze the efficiency of Botryococcus sp. in the phycoremediation of domestic wastewater and to determine the variety of hydrocarbons derived from microalgal oil after phycoremediation. The study showed a significant (p < 0.05) reduction of pollutant loads of up to 93.9% chemical oxygen demand, 69.1% biochemical oxygen demand, 59.9% total nitrogen, 54.5% total organic carbon, and 36.8% phosphate. The average dry weight biomass produce was 0.1 g/L of wastewater. In addition, the dry weight biomass of Botryococcus sp. was found to contain 72.5% of crude oil. The composition analysis using Gas Chromatogram - Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) found that phthalic acid, 2-ethylhexyltridecyl ester (C29H48O4), contributed the highest percentage (71.6%) of the total hydrocarbon compounds to the extracted algae oil. The result of the study suggests that Botryococcus sp. can be used for effective phycoremediation, as well as to provide a sustainable hydrocarbon source as a value-added chemical for the bio-based plastic industry.

The potential of biodiesel production from Botryococcus sp. biomass after phycoremediation of domestic and industrial wastewater

The aim of the present work is to investigate the capability of microalgae, known as Botryococcus sp. for wastewater phycoremediation and potential biodiesel production. The vertical closed photobioreactors (PBR) were employed and supplemented with domestic wastewater (DW) and food industry wastewater (FW) at different batch of study. The cultivation was conducted under natural outdoor condition for 12 days. The results revealed that the removal of pollutant and nutrients presence in both wastewaters with constantly decrease proportionate to the increase in cultivation time. The chemical oxygen demand (COD), total phosphorus (TP) and total organic carbon (TOC) were successfully removed up to 84.9%, 69.3% and 93.3%, respectively in DW while 96.1%, 35.5% and 87.2%, respectively in FW. The result on FT-IR analysis of microalgae oil was shown comparable with conventional palm oil based biodiesel in term of IR spectra. This study suggests that Botryococcus sp. has tremendous potential in pollutants removal and biodiesel production for renewable energy development.

Growth of microalgae Botryococcus sp. in domestic wastewater and application of statistical analysis for the optimization of flocculation using alum and chitosan

ABSTRACT Microalga biomass has been recognized as a sustainable bio-product to replace terrestrial biomass in biofuel production. The microalga industry has high operating costs, specifically on harvesting and biomass recovery. Therefore, the development of an efficient harvesting method is crucial to the minimization of production cost. A statistical analysis through response surface methodology was used to investigate the optimization of harvesting efficiency using alum and chitosan as a coagulant. Growth rate and biomass productivity were also determined. This research revealed that the harvesting efficiency using alum was 99.3%, with optimum dosage and pH of 177.74 mg L−1 and 8.24, respectively. Chitosan achieved 94.2% biomass recovery at an optimal dosage of 169.95 mg L−1 at pH of 12. Moreover, Botryococcus sp. achieved the maximum growth of 0.7551 µmax d−1, with an average total biomass productivity of 9.81 mg L−1 d−1 in domestic wastewater. Overall, this study shows that both alum and chitosan coagulants have great potential for efficient microalgal biomass recovery. It suggests that domestic wastewater as a potential growth medium for the large-scale production of microalga biomass.

The Characterization of Chlorophyll-A and Microalgae Isolation Process of Wastewater Collected at Sembrong Dam

Recently, there has been an increasing number of river water quality deterioration that has brought into water quality disruptions that entering dams including in Johor and one of them is occurred in Sembrong Dam in Johor. Sembrong Dam is a major water source for some 120,000 people in the districts of Kluang and parts of Batu Pahat. The quality of water in Sembrong should be well-monitored in ensuring the continuous distribution of clean and safe water supply to peoples. Based on the news reported by The Star news dated on 11 May 2015, the water bodies in Sembrong Dam are polluted by the algae blooms which has started to cause problems in treating water phase by clogging up the filters and causing the production to be reduced and finally resulting in frequent water disruptions to residents. Therefore, there is a need to study the water quality of the dam water prior to further water treatment. One of important characterizations is by measuring chlorophyll-a and the isolation of the dominant microalgae species in the water body in which they are able to indicate the level of water pollution. This paper presents the determination of chlorophyll-a and the isolation of microalgae strains collected from Sembrong Dam. Chlorophyll-a is a photosynthetic pigment present in all species of phytoplankton, including algae and in some photosynthetic bacteria, known as cyanobacteria. The method used in measuring the chlorophyll-a is based on the standard method of IS0 10 260. The average chlorophyll-a concentration measured at Sembrong Dam is 175.9 µg L-1 and it is responsible for the appearance of green color in the sample and it is categorized into hypereutrophic state which is highly polluted. The technique used for isolation of microalgae strains is traditional method which is by spreading the sample on agar. The pure isolate indicated that the genus Botryococcus is the dominant algae species which is characterized morphologically. Both chlorophyll-a and microalgae isolation are good biological indicator that indicate the pollution of Sembrong Dam. The pure culture is very important that it can be used for further studies with series of different tests to understand its properties and character for sustainability approach towards environmentally friendly as well as for microalgae removal formula.

Effect of pH and alum dosage on the efficiency of microalgae harvesting via flocculation technique

ABSTRACT Microalgae biomass is well known as a potential sustainable product for bio-based industry, which has reported encountering numerous difficulties during biomass harvesting and recovering. This study examined the effect of pH (5–12) and alum dosage (30–180 mg/L) for microalgae Botryococcus sp. harvested via flocculation technique. The optimum pH condition for Botryococcus sp. harvesting was measured to be 9.2, and the alum dosage was 100 mg/L. Both optimum values successfully harvested up to 95% microalgae biomass. This study revealed that flocculation efficiencies for alum are highly dependent on the range of pH and coagulant dosage that were applied during the process. Use of flocculation technique with alum as a coagulant represents a convenient technique for Botryococcus sp. biomass harvesting and is recommended for use in both small- and large-scale biomass industries.

Probability models for the distribution of copepods in different coastal ecosystems along the straits of Malacca.

Copepods are the most abundant microcrustaceans in the marine waters and are the major food resource for many commercial fish species. In addition, changes in the distribution and population composition of copepods may also serve as an indicator of global climate changes. Therefore, it is important to model the copepod distribution in different ecosystems. Copepod samples were collected from three different ecosystems (seagrass area, cage aquaculture area and coastal waters off shrimp aquaculture farm) along the coastal waters of the Malacca Straits over a one year period. In this study the major statistical analysis consisted of fitting different probability models. This paper highlights the fitting of probability distributions and discusses the adequateness of the fitted models. The usefulness of these fitted models would enable one to make probability statements about the distribution of copepods in three different ecosystems.