Potential biomass of Scenedesmus sp. to produce valuable chemical by Bacillus megaterium

Microalgae has been always known as a sustainable, renewable, and environmentally friendly resource with potential use in variety of applications, especially in bioenergy production and as feedstock for biorefineries. Microalgae are very diverse microorganisms, in which different species of microalgae have different chemical composition. The chemical composition is what determining the suitability of application microalgae can be used in. In this study, several analyses were carried out to determine the chemical profiles and composition of Scenedesmus sp. that hold potential to be used as feedstock in the production of valuable compounds from microbial fermentation. Scenedesmus sp. was cultivated, harvested, and freeze-dried. The characterization of the biomass was carried out in terms of the analysis of carbohydrate, protein, and lipid content. Although the results obtained here are significantly lower compared to other studies, the proximate analysis of Scenedesmus sp. demonstrate that it is a suitable feedstock to be used in microbial fermentation with 37.02% ± 1.43 of protein content, 8.17% ± 0.15 of carbohydrate content and 2.16% ± 0.07 of lipid content. High carbohydrate accumulation signifies the potential of Scenedesmus sp. to be used as carbon feedstock to produce valuable chemical through microbial fermentation.