Cost-Effective Mass Cultivation of Marine Diatoms with Local Salts and its Impact on Growth and Productivity

Diatoms are of great interest for a plethora of biotechnological applications. The present work determines the prospect of mass cultivation for inducing diatom growth under the effect of seawater made from local salts. Using standard seawater, the comparative analysis was carried out both with silica and nanosilica. A momentous cell density of 3.165x107±0.043 (C. gracilis) and 3.243x107±0.0513 cells mL-1 (T.weissflogii) coupled with carbohydrate yield of 403.027±3.40 and 398.083±8.12 mg g-1 in C. gracilis and T. weissflogii were obtained in RS-f/2 Nano Si. The presence of rich pigment profile further highlights the importance of local salts for cost effective mass culturing. Chrysolaminarin was maximum in RS-f/2 Nano Si (66.25±5.520) and RS-f/2 Si (49.37±5.18) mg g-1 in C. gracilis and T.weissflogii. Overall, results reveal that mass cultivation with local salt with nanosilica not only reduces cost but also enhances metabolite production