Biomass production and nutrients removal by a newly-isolated microalgal strain Chlamydomonas sp in palm oil mill effluent (POME)

• A novel microalgal strain was isolated and identified as Chlamydomonas sp.
• This microalgae was successfully cultivated in different dilutions of POME.
• The microalgae showed good biomass growth and high efficiency of nutrients removal in POME.

Recently, Palm oil mill effluent (POME) nutrients removal by microalgae and its biomass growth have been explored. A novel green microalgal strain was isolated from POME of Sime Darby East Palm Oil Mill in Malaysia and was identified as Chlamydomonas sp and subsequently named Chlamydomonas sp UKM 6. This strain was cultivated in media with different volume ratios of POME and distilled water. The result showed Chlamydomonas sp UKM 6 that grew in the media with 25%, 16.7% and 12.5% POME exhibited high maximum specific growth rates of 0.715 day−1, 1.047 day−1 and 1.353 day−1, and biomass production of 0.634 ± 0.042 g L−1, 0.917 ± 0.026 g L−1 and 0.716 ± 0.045 g L−1, respectively. The ranges of removal efficiency of COD, TN, NH4+-N and TP from media of different ratios of POME were 8.59-29.13%, 43.5-72.97%, 58.58-100% and 38.15-63.53%, respectively. The results indicate the potential of microalgae for biomass production and POME nutrients removal.