3.4. Effect of ECH process on lipid yield and fatty acid composition
Lipid content is specific for particular microalgal strain and it depends upon many factors viz. cultivation conditions, nutrient source and composition, light intensity etc. Harvesting process should not hamper the lipid extraction process. Lipid yields of biomass harvested using ECH and control of the selected microalgal strains are depicted in Fig. 4a. Lipid yields of the control biomass of C. sorokiniana and S. obliquus were 12.37 ± 0.17% and 15.56 ± 0.06% DCW (dry cell weight) respectively. Lipid yields of biomass harvested using ECH process with 1.5 A of C. sorokiniana and S. obliquus were 12.20 ± 0.03% and 15.42 ± 0.19% DCW respectively. This result shows that ECH process does not hamper the
lipid extraction process. Even results have shown that with the variation in current there is no significant variation in lipid yields (p < 0.05). In case of C. sorokiniana ECH processes with 0.5, 1 and 1.5 A have shown lipid yield of 12.32%, 12.14% and 12.2% DCW. Similar results were found with S. obliquus which shows no