Enhancing Phycoerythrin and Phycocyanin Production from Porphyridium cruentum CCALA 415 in Synthetic Wastewater: The Application of Theoretical Methods on Microalgae

Abstract

Phycoerythrin (PE) and phycocyanin (PC) are florescent pigments. They have the colorant role in the industry. In this study, production of PE and PC from Porphyridium cruentum were investigated at the various conditions such as different concentrations of municipal wastewater, wavelengths and salicylic acid using Response Surface Methodology-Central Composite Design (RSM-CCD), regression analysis and rstool models. The maximum RSM predicted PE concentration was 29.5 mg/g biomass at 50 % of wastewater, 510 nm of wavelength and 10 µM of salicylic acid. On the other hand, maximum RSM predicted PC concentration was 6.9 mg/g biomass at 50% of wastewater, 680 nm and 40 µM of salicylic acid. According to the ANOVA results, the square effects of the three variables (X1, X2 and X3) were found to be significant for the phycocyanin concentration, while the wastewater and salicylic acid variables (X1 and X3) were found to be important in the Phycoerythrin concentration. In addition to this, the highest PE and PC concentrations were 27.648 and 5.7104 mg/g biomass, respectively, for 50 % of wastewater, 512.5 nm and 47.0833 µM of salicylic acid according to rstool model. In conclusion, the variables such as wastewater, wavelength and salicylic acid can be used for the highest PE and PC concentration by means of RSM-CCD and rstool models and these variables may contribute to the industrial production of the two pigments.