High-density growth and crude protein productivity of a thermotolerant Chlorella vulgaris: Production kinetics and thermodynamics

Journal Article

2012

Published in: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10499-011-9477-1

Current study investigated the fermentative production of cell mass and crude protein using an axenic culture of the thermotolerant strain of Chlorella vulgaris grown mixotrophically in an illuminated 10-l glass bioreactor. The process was then upscaled to 1,000-l bioreactor. The organism supported maximum specific growth rate, crude protein volumetric productivity, and specific productivity of 1.2 day⁻¹, 2.26 g l⁻¹ day⁻¹, and 0.76 g g⁻¹ day⁻¹, respectively, with urea as nitrogen source. Gibbs free energy, enthalpy, and entropy values for its formation were 74.3, 56. 2 kJ mol⁻¹, and −59.1 J mol⁻¹ K⁻¹, respectively, in both reactors and corresponded to those of thermotolerant organisms. Algal biomass grown in 10-l bioreactor contained 0.52 ± 0.03, 12.6 ± 2.0, 60.0 ± 4.5, 0.4 ± 0.02, 4.5 ± 0.2, 12 ± 0.5, and 3.81 ± 0.5% carotenoids, carbohydrates, crude protein, DNA, RNA, lipids, and total chlorophyll, respectively. Dry biomass supported good growth of fish larvae comparable with that on commercial diet.

• Magazine \ Newspaper: Journal of the European Aquaculture Society