[CCoE Notice] Master's Thesis announcement

[Khator, Suresh]

SUSTAINABLE APPROACH FOR LIPID PRODUCTION FROM ALGAE
Deepthi Kumar Sugumar
Monday, November 28th 2011, 2:30 pm, N137
Committee Chair: Dr. C. Vipulanandan
The need for sustainable source of energy has led to us to search for new source of energy.  There is a growing interest for producing algae lipids for biodiesel in a cost effective way.  The objective of this study was to investigate the growth of algae on wastewater media (activated sludge) which contains nutrients for the growth of algae.  Effect of temperature, pH and salinity on the growth of a pure culture Chlorella vulgaris and an environmental/field sample called UHalgae2/Micractinium pusillum was investigated. Chlorella vulgaris and UHalgae2/Micractinium pusillum was able to produce a maximum of up to 170 mg/L and 240 mg/L of dry cell weight under optimum conditions.  Results from this study also indicated that activated sludge media yielded more biomass than standard nutrient media.  The algae growth was also modeled using a hyperbolic relationship.  This study also investigated a novel approach for lipid extraction.  UH-Biosurfactant was used for extraction of lipid from algae in which algae was re-cultivated compared to the Chemical method of extraction.  The lipid content was also analyzed using Nile red Spectrofluorimetric method and calibrated using the Gravimetric method.  Based in this study optimum pH 7 -8 and temperature conditions 25±0.5oC in activated sludge media were determined for maximum algae growth in wastewater and lipid production.  Maximum lipid content (percentage dry weight) of Chlorella vulgaris and UHalgae2/Micractinium pusillum was 15% and 46% respectively.

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