Abstract:
Using microalgae as a biofuel feedstock has played more attention over a decade. The cultivation of microalgae requires high water use and high initial investment that can make the process still not economically appealing. This study attempted to examine the potential for using brackish shrimp aquaculture effluents as culture medium for algal biomass production. To investigate whether algae could be used to remove ammonium from brackish shrimp aquaculture wastewater, marine cyanobacterium, Synechococcus sp. was cultured in BG-11 medium supplemented with Turks Island salt solution and different concentrations of NH4Cl (10-40 mg N L-1) for 18 days. The results showed that, the cell density of the Synechococcus sp. cultures increased in medium containing 10 mg N L-1 of NH4Cl, while ammonium concentrations greater than 20 mg N L-1 had a negative effect on growth. Glutamine synthetase and glutamate synthase activities were also examined, and were found to increase with cell density. Meanwhile, glutamate dehydrogenase activity increased in response to high NH4Cl concentrations (20-40 mg N L-1). The cellular response to ammonium excess was confirmed by measuring gene expression levels using quantitative PCR. Expression of both glnA and gltB was down-regulated compared with the control, while that of gdhA was up-regulated. At an initial concentration of 10 mg N L-1, 98% of the ammonium was removed by day 6 of cultivation. Then, Synechococcus sp. was cultured under different conditions in medium containing varying concentrations of NH4Cl. Response surface methodology (RSM) was then used to build a predictive model of the combined effects of independent variables (pH, inoculum size, ammonium concentration). At the optimum conditions of initial pH 7.4, inoculum size 0.15 (OD730) and ammonium concentration 10.62 mg N L-1, the maximum ammonium removal and biomass production were about 90% and 75.5%, respectively, after seven days of cultivation. Further, analysis of expression of glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase (GPAT) gene by quantitative PCR revealed that transcripts of GPAT were up-regulated by 2.87-folds with a significant increase in unsaturated fatty acid of 14.25% under optimal conditions. The result of biodiesel quality, in terms of cetane number almost attained the European Standards EN14214 criteria; hence, this strain shows promise for use in biodiesel production. Overall results indicate that Synechococcus sp. has the potential for use for concurrent water treatment and production of biomass that can be applied for biodiesel feedstock.