Lipid Accumulation In Microalgae Research Articles

Biomass and lipid production of marine microalgae using municipal wastewater and high concentration of CO 2

In order to reduce the cost of the production of microalgae for biodiesel, the feasibility of using the mixture of seawater and municipal wastewater as culture medium and CO 2 from flue gas for the cultivation of marine microalgae was investigated in this study. Effects of different ratios of municipal wastewater and 15% CO 2 aeration on the growth of Nannochloropsis sp. were examined, and lipid accumulation of microalgae was also studied under nitrogen starvation and high light. It was found that optimal growth of microalgae occurred in 50% municipal wastewater, and the growth was further significantly enhanced by aeration with 15% CO 2. When Nannochloropsis sp. cells were transferred from the first growth phase to the second lipid accumulation phase under the combination of nitrogen deprivation and high light, both biomass and lipid production of Nannochloropsis sp. were significantly increased. After 12 days of the second-phase cultivation, the biomass concentration and total lipid content increased from 0.71 to 2.23 g L −1 and 33.8–59.9%, respectively. This study suggests that it is possible to utilize municipal wastewater to replace nutrients in seawater medium and use flue gas to provide CO 2 in the cultivation of oil-bearing marine microalgae for biodiesel.

Culturing and investigation of stress-induced lipid accumulation in microalgae using a microfluidic device

There is increasing interest in using microalgae as a lipid feedstock for the production of biofuels. Lipids used for these purposes are triacylglycerols that can be converted to fatty acid methyl esters (biodiesel) or decarboxylated to "green diesel." Lipid accumulation in most microalgal species is dependent on environmental stress and culturing conditions, and these conditions are currently optimized using slow, labor-intensive screening processes. Increasing the screening throughput would help reduce the development cost and time to commercial production. Here, we demonstrated an initial step towards this goal in the development of a glass/poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) microfluidic device capable of screening microalgal culturing and stress conditions. The device contained power-free valves to isolate microalgae in a microfluidic growth chamber for culturing and stress experiments. Initial experiments involved determining the biocompatibility and culturing capability of the device using the microalga Tetraselmis chuii. With this device, T. chuii could be successfully cultured for up to 3 weeks on-chip. Following these experiments, the device was used to investigate lipid accumulation in the microalga Neochloris oleabundans. It was shown that this microalga could be stressed to accumulate cytosolic lipids in a microfluidic environment, as evidenced with fluorescence lipid staining. This work represents the first example of microalgal culturing in a microfluidic device and signifies an important expansion of microfluidics into the biofuels research arena.