Cultivation of Chlorella sp. HQ in inland saline-alkaline water under different light qualities

Inland saline-alkaline water can be used for the low-cost cultivation of microalgae, but whether algal biomass under various light sources has the potential to produce biodiesel remains to be developed. Herein, the influence of different light-emitting diode (LEDs) light colors (blue, red, white, mixed blue-red, and mixed blue-white LED) on the growth performance, lipid accumulation, and fatty acid composition of Chlorella sp. HQ cultivated in inland saline-alkaline water was investigated. The highest algal density was obtained under blue LEDs at the end of cultivation, reaching 1.93 +/- 0.03 x 10(7) cells/mL. White LEDs can improve biomass yield, total lipid yield, and triacylglycerol yield per algal cell. The main fatty acid components of Chlorella from inland saline-alkaline water were palmitic acid and linoleic acid. The BiodieselAnalyzer (c) software was used to predict algal biodiesel quality by estimating different quality parameters. The cetane number, kinematic viscosity, and density of Chlorella biodiesel were 51.714-67.69, 3.583-3.845 mm(2)/s, and 0.834-0.863 g/cm(3), respectively. This further proved that the Chlorella biomass obtained from inland saline-alkaline water has the potential to be used as a high-quality biodiesel feedstock. (C) Higher Education Press 2021