Study of Cultivation under Different Colors of Light and Growth Kinetic Study of Chlorella zofingiensis Dönz for Biofuel Production

Chlorella zofingiensis Dönz is popular as food sources and as potential source for biofuel. In order to determine the potential of Chlorella zofingiensis Dönz as a source for biofuel, it is necessary to enhance its growth and to identify the carbohydrate and lipid content using red, blue, and white light as well as various salinities for the cultivation. Among the process conditions tried, cultivation using blue light at salinity 19 ppm was considered as the optimum one which resulted in greater dry weight of biomass as well as greater lipid content. However, the other process conditions, with lower dry weight of biomass, had carbohydrate as the major component so that actually the process condition selection depended on what kind of biofuel will be produced. Based on the optimum condition in interest of biodiesel production, kinetic study was ran using blue light with salinity 19 ppm. The suitable model to describe the growth kinetic of microalgae was Contois model.