Impact of hydrogen peroxide on microalgae cultivated in varying salt-nitrate-phosphate conditions

Microalgal biomass has received a great deal of attention as renewable and environmental-friendly biofuel feedstock as a rebuttal to climate change, energy crisis, and global warming. To improve the commercial viability of algal biodiesel production, the rise in lipid accretion and the enrichment of algal fatty acid profile are of utmost importance. In this experiment, lipid content and fatty acid methyl ester profiling of the microalgal strain, Scenedesmus sp. is done to understand the intercalating effect of different media composition for its suitability in context to biodiesel production. Various nutrient combinations (sodium nitrate, NaNO3) and di-potassium hydrogen phosphate, (K2HPO4) were incorporated along with salinity (sodium chloride) exposure for first 48 h stage of algal cultivation, followed by oxidative stress via hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) for the second 24 h stage of cultivation. The results show that the presence of 100 mM NaCl, 35.29 mM NaNO3, and 5.74 mM K2HPO4 followed by the addition of 10 mM H2O2 (S100H10N35.29P5.74) to the algal growth media led to the accumulation of maximum total lipid content (226.49 ± 16.6 μg/mg). Another nutrient combination, S0H10N35.29P0, increased the saturated fatty acid composition (C16:0) to 31.7%. Principal component analysis (PCA) also demonstrated the combined effect of multiple nutrient components and their relative concentrations on the growth parameters and algal biochemical profile, such as biomass, chlorophyll, lipid, carbohydrate, alongwith fatty acid profiling. Hence, this study demonstrate the potential of Scenedesmus sp. in response to a multi-component stress environment that has influenced the fate of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) composition and significantly improved the quality of algal biofuels produced over a short period.