Cultivation of Microalgae using Sungai Sura Water Source as a Medium for Biodiesel Production

Objectives: It is to determine the suitability of cultivating green microalgae: Tetraspora sp. and Spirogyra sp. that are cultured in Sungai Sura of Dungun, Terengganu, Malaysia as a water source. Methods: The microalgae strains have been cultured in an indoor laboratory of Environmental Research Center, UiTM Dungun for 20 days in the low salinity water medium ranges of 120 to 150 μS/cm. The cultivation process significantly grown in 20 days. Findings: It is also shown the positive correlation between growth rate and cultivation days of Tetraspora sp. and Spirogyra sp. However, Tetraspora sp. gives higher densities than Spirogyra sp. when an assessment carried out in the similar days within 20 day cultivation periods. The maximum biomass concentration of Tetraspora sp. is 7.37 mg/ml and Spirogyra sp. is 3.16 mg/ ml. Applications/Improvements: Tetraspora sp. generate more than double biomass densities than Spirogyra sp. on the similar days within 20 day cultivation periods. Both species were successfully grown indoors in the Sungai Sura water source, where salinity is lower as a cultivation medium.