CO2 from alcoholic fermentation for continuous cultivation of Arthrospira (Spirulina) platensis in tubular photobioreactor using urea as nitrogen source
✍ Scribed by Marcelo C. Matsudo; Raquel P. Bezerra; Attilio Converti; Sunao Sato; João Carlos M. Carvalho
- Publisher
- American Institute of Chemical Engineers
- Year
- 2011
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 178 KB
- Volume
- 27
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 8756-7938
- DOI
- 10.1002/btpr.581
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Abstract
Carbon dioxide released from alcoholic fermentation accounts for 33% of the whole CO~2~ involved in the use of ethanol as fuel derived from glucose. As Arthrospira platensis can uptake this greenhouse gas, this study evaluates the use of the CO~2~ released from alcoholic fermentation for the production of Arthrospira platensis. For this purpose, this cyanobacterium was cultivated in continuous process using urea as nitrogen source, either using CO~2~ from alcoholic fermentation, without any treatment, or using pure CO~2~ from cylinder. The experiments were carried out at 120 μmol photons m^−2^ s^−1^ in tubular photobioreactor at different dilution rates (0.2 ≤ D ≤ 0.8 d^−1^). Using CO~2~ from alcoholic fermentation, maximum steady‐state cell concentration (2661 ± 71 mg L^−1^) was achieved at D = 0.2 d^−1^, whereas higher dilution rate (0.6 d^−1^) was needed to maximize cell productivity (839 mg L^−1^ d^−1^). This value was 10% lower than the one obtained with pure CO~2~, and there was no significant difference in the biomass protein content. With D = 0.8 d^−1^, it was possible to obtain 56% ± 1.5% and 50% ± 1.2% of protein in the dry biomass, using pure CO~2~ and CO~2~ from alcoholic fermentation, respectively. These results demonstrate that the use of such cost free CO~2~ from alcoholic fermentation as carbon source, associated with low cost nitrogen source, may be a promising way to reduce costs of continuous cultivation of photosynthetic microorganisms, contributing at the same time to mitigate the greenhouse effect. © 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 2011