Factors Affecting the Biomass and Lipid Production from Chlorella sp. TISTR 8990 under Mixotrophic Culture

Abstract

Effects of media compositions on biomass and lipid accumulation of the isolate Chlorella sp. TISTR 8990 were investigated under a Plackett-Burman experimental design with mixotrophic cultivation conditions. Under this experimental design there were 15 different runs with ten factors-yeast extract, KH2PO4, MgSO4, FeSO4, MnCl2, CuSO4, Na2MoO4, H3BO3, ZnSO4 and pH. Cultures were grown mixotrophically under 16 h light and 8 h dark regime at 30 oC for a period of 7 days. During the light regime, the light intensity at the surface of the vessels and agitation speed were set to 67.5 µmol photons m-2s-1 and 150 rpm, respectively. Initial cell concentration was set to an absorbance (A540) of 0.5. For high biomass production (2.2 g/L, run no. 6), the most effective and significant factors were yeast extract, KH2PO4, FeSO4 and ZnSO4 at concentrations 0.3 g/L, 0.3 g/L, 3 mg/L and 0.3 mg/L, respectively. Whereas for high lipid accumulation (19.59 %DCW, run no. 2), these were KH2PO4, pH and yeast extract, at a level of 1.7 g/L, 6.0 and 0.1 g/L, respectively. No significant factors were obtained for higher lipid content. The best treatment for biomass and lipid content was run no. 6, whose medium formula consisted of 0.3 g/L yeast extract, 1.7 g/L KH2PO4, 1.7 g/L MgSO4, 1 mg/L FeSO4, 0.9 mg/L MnCl2, and pH 7.0, together with fixed concentrations of glucose, NaHCO3 and KNO3 at 5 g/L, 0.05 g/L and 0.5 g/L, respectively.