Investigation of Nutrient Effect on Microalgae Growth for Biofuel in a Photobioreactor

Fuel is a major regulator in the current global instability. It is safe to say that energy is the silent hero of the fourth industrial revolution. Because of its environmentally favorable function and cost-effective sustainability, biofuel can be an ideal alternative to fossil fuels. Microalgae-based biofuel is gaining popularity among scientists and entrepreneurs due to its high biomass yield. There are some growth factors like strain properties, light, temperature CO2, PH , nutrients (N, P, Mg, Mn, etc.), culture systems, etc. to increase biomass growth. In this present research, a growth model based on nitrogen intake is considered to investigate the effect on optimal biomass growth. The other kinematic parameters are taken from an experiment for our simulation. The local light intensity is taken into account for a geographical location. Microalgae culture shows a very significant growth in biomass concentration while nitrogen intake gradually decreases. The simulated results were also compared with a reference model and the experimental one and found a good agreement. The rate of biomass concentration within the first 100 hours in our present research work, using 1.575 gL-1 acetate and 0.0735gL-1N, is revealing upper than the compared experimental results. The nitrogen consumption by the culture shows a similar pattern to the reference study.