earticle

영어

Light is the most important parameters in the mass cultivation of microalgae in photobioreactors (PBRs). Microalgae have the ability to utilize sunlight energy for the production of fine chemicals and for biofuels. Microalgal photosynthetic efficiency is higher than that of higher plants. Although algae can only use all the photons of visible light, other colored photons could have different effects and efficiency on cell growth and metabolism. Chlorella vulgaris UTEX 295 was cultivated in 0.4L bubble column PBRs with supplementation of three different monochromatic LEDs (470, 525, and 660 nm) in addition to white light from fluorescent lamps.The results indicated that fresh cell weight and total lipid concentration were positively increased by over 11% and 10%, respectively, under the condition of long wavelength supplement. In fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) composition, short and long wavelength supplement have the positive effects on linolenic acid and oleic acid methyl ester concentration, respectively. By analogy with the results, we hypothesized that the specific wavelength of light could affect the cell niche. In order to confirm this hypothesis, additional studies with Dunaliella tertiolecta were conducted with colored plastic filter film in red and blue in outdoor cultivation. The results clearly showed that final biomass concentrations under the red and the blue were 41% and 37% higher, respectively, than the control. Moreover, the major FAMEs were increased by 9-11% under the blue colored film and total FAME productivity was also increased by 49% and 34% in the red and the blue, respectively. Therefore, we propose that certain wavelength of light could induce high quality biodiesel.