Almino: Algae Microbubble Generator for Enhanced Productivity of Microalgae

Abstract

The tendency public to use fossil energy sources is still high, even though fossil energy sources are non-renewable energy. A solution to the decreasing of fossil fuels usage is to use renewable energy and biodiesel is one example of renewable energy. Biodiesel from algae biomass is one of a promising alternative solution to minimize the environmental impact and energy crisis. Unfortunately, most of algae farmers in Indonesia still use traditional method with aerator (open pond). They were using a method that giving CO2 to algae. However, CO2 is in the form of large bubbles that difficult for algae to absorb the CO2. By this method, if they want to increase the productivity of algae production, the farmers should expand their ponds. This problem can be solved by using Almino: algae microbubble generator, a simple method to increase the productivity of algae production without expanding the pond. The parameter that used to measure the increased productivity of algae are pH of algae, temperature, and amount of cell. Almino showed pH value between 8.4-8.7 (reasonable limit of pH value are above 8) and temperature in range 31–36° Celsius. Almino also showed amount of algae cell increase from 4.3 to 9. Compare with the aerator, amount of algae cell with aerator increase from 11.6 to 20.4. Almino increase amount of algae cell about 209.3%, while the aerator only increases about 175.86 %. With this method, Almino is the promising ways to enhance the productivity of Microalgae.

Keywords: Algae; Microalgae; Microbubble generator