Growth Performance and Nutritional Value of Chlorella ellipsoidea in Fertilizer Factory Effluent Media

Abstract

The growth performance of green alga, Chlorella ellipsoidea was studied in a laboratory in different concentrations of fertilizer factory effluent media (FFEM). Five different concentrations viz. 40, 45, 50, 55 and 60% of FFEM and bold basal medium (BBM) (control) were used with three replications for a period of three months. Each trial was done for a period of 16 days. The initial cell density of C. ellipsoidea was 2.5×105 cells.ml-1 which attained a maximum density of 198.49x105 cells.ml-1 in BBM followed by 182.07, 157.41, 142.34, 137.57 and 121.35 (x105 cells. ml-1) in 50, 55, 45, 60 and 40 % FFEM, respectively on the 10th day of culture. A similar trend was observed in the case of chlorophyll a content and the range was 5.85 to 9.39 mg.l-1. The specific growth rate (SGR, μ.day-1) on the basis of cell number and chlorophyll a were found at 0.40 to 0.44 and 0.41 to 0.45, respectively and was significantly (p<0.05) higher in BBM. The total biomass was found at 629.13 and 541.36 mg.l-1 in BBM and 50% FFEM, respectively. The overall growth performance of C. ellipsoidea was significantly (p<0.05) higher in 50% FFEM than in other concentrations of FFEM. The cultured microalga was found nutritionally rich.