Photoautotrophic cultivating options of freshwater green microalgal Chlorococcum humicola for biomass and carotenoid production

ABSTRACT

Photoautotrophic cultivation of Chlorococcum humicola was performed in batch and continuous modes in different cultivating system arrangements to compare biomass and carotenoids’ concentration and their productivities. Batch result from stirred tank and airlift photobioreactors indicated the positive effect of increasing light intensity on growth and carotenoid production, whereas the finding from continuous cultivation indicated that carotenoid enhancement preferred high light intensity and nitrogen-deficient environment. The highest biomass (1.31 ± 0.04 g L⁻¹) and carotenoid (4.59 ± 0.06 mg L⁻¹) concentration as well as the highest productivities, 0.46 g L⁻¹ d⁻¹ for biomass and 1.61 mg L⁻¹ d⁻¹ for carotenoids, were obtained when maintaining high light intensity of 10 klx, BG-11 medium and 2% (v/v) CO₂ simultaneously, while the highest carotenoid content (4.84 mg g⁻¹) was associated with high light intensity and nitrogen-deficient environment, which was induced by feed-modified BG-11 growth medium containing nitrate 20 folds lower than the original medium. Finally, the cultivating system arranged into smaller stirred tank photobioreactors in series yielded approximately 2.5 folds increase in both biomass and carotenoid productivities relative to using single airlift photobioreactor with equivalent working volume and similar operating condition.

KEYWORDS:

• Biomass
• carotenoids
• Chlorococcum
• microalgae
• photobioreactor

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Asahi Glass Foundation for the fiscal year 2017 and the Thailand Research Fund (IRG5780014). Ms. Wannachod was supported by the Rachadapiseksompote Endowment Fund of Chulalongkorn University for postdoctoral fellowship.