Abstract
Due to the possible depletion of fossil fuels in the near future and the necessity of finding new food sources for a growing world population, marine microalgae constitutes a very promising alternative resource, which can also contribute to carbon dioxide fixation. Thus, seven species (Chaetoceros calcitrans, Chaetoceros gracilis, Isochrysis galbana, Nannochloropsis gaditana, Dunaliella salina, Tetraselmis suecica, and Tetraselmis chuii) were grown in five serial batch cultures at a bench scale under continuous illumination. The batch cultures were inoculated with an aliquot that was extracted from a larger-scale culture in order to obtain growth data valid for the entire growth cycle with guaranteed reproducibility. Thus, measurements of optical density at several wavelengths and cell counting with a haemocytometer (Neubauer chamber) were performed every one or two days for 22 days in the five batch cultures of each specie. Modeling of cell growth, the relationship between optical density (OD) and cell concentration and the effect of wavelength on OD was performed. The results of this study showed the highest and lowest growth rate for N. gaditana and T. suecica, respectively. Furthermore, a simple and accurate discrimination method by performing direct single OD measurements of microalgae culture aliquots was developed and is already available for free on internet.
Highlights
In the last decade, the great surge of interest in the microalgal world has been focused on the massive cultivation of microalgae for promising products, first and foremost among which has been microalgal fuel due to the possible depletion of fossil fuels in the near future and the idea of microalgae as a food source for a growing world population [1]
Seven important marine microalgae species (C. calcitrans, C. gracilis, I. galbana, N. gaditana, D. salina, T. suecica, and T. chuii) were grown in 250 mL Erlenmeyer flasks in batch cultures using f/2 autoclaved medium [38] with a salinity of 35 g/L under continuous fluorescent illumination (6400 k cool white type; two tubes of 18 W) with a light intensity of 166.60 μmol·m-2 ·s-1 in a temperature controlled room at 27 ± 2 ◦ C
These marine microalgae species were obtained from the microalgae collection of the Institute of Environment and Marine Science Research at the Universidad Católica de Valencia San Vicente Mártir
Summary
The great surge of interest in the microalgal world has been focused on the massive cultivation of microalgae for promising products, first and foremost among which has been microalgal fuel due to the possible depletion of fossil fuels in the near future and the idea of microalgae as a food source for a growing world population [1]. Marine microalgae constitutes a very promising biomass resource because their culture require neither available land nor freshwater [2,3]. There are microalgae species, such as the oleaginous Nannochloropsis gaditana, which has been proved to have high potential for biofuel production due to its high lipid content [4]. Novel processing technologies for the disintegration and extraction of microalgae to produce lipids and biofuels have been recently developed [5]. The fatty acid profile of algae can be significantly enhanced by the heterologous expression of exogenous genes [6] and using plant growth regulators [7].
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