Abstract:
Marine microalgae have been commercially used as live feed for aquaculture and nutritional supplements. However, harvesting of marine microalgae is a major obstacle for industrial scale and one of the promising harvesting techniques is bio-flocculation. Nannochloropsis oculata from the culture broth was investigated. The potential of Moringa oleifera as a flocculant has been evaluated using jar test experiments. Moringa oleifera after oil extraction (MOAE) and with nonextracted Moringa oleifera (MOWE) have been studied and compared to chemical flocculant, aluminium sulphate. Three parameters involved: pH, settling time and flocculant dosage. When MOAE and MOWE were used as flocculants, the highest flocculation efficiency of Nannochloropsis oculata was observed at 93.77% (pH 7, 150 minutes, 5000 mg/L) and 70.56% (pH 7, 90 minutes, 4000 mg/L) respectively. Harvesting efficiency of 99.98% with short settling time, 30 minutes and 2000 mg/L of flocculant dosage at pH 6 was achieved using aluminium sulphate. The concentrated of Nannochloropsis oculata was then fed to the Brachionus plicatilis (rotifers) to observe the growth characteristics in 12 days period. Concentrates of MOWE gave better growth of Brachionus plicatilis than growth in concentrates of MOAE and live Nannochloropsis oculata. In contrast, growth of Brachionus plicatilis in aluminium sulphate was tremendously decline. In conclusion, bio-flocculation using Moringa oleifera was rapid, inexpensive and eco-friendly technology as no addition of chemical flocculants was required
