Strategies to enhance cell growth and achieve high-level oil production of a Chlorella vulgaris isolate

✍ Scribed by Chun-Yen Chen; Kuei-Ling Yeh; Huei-Meei Su; Yung-Chung Lo; Wen-Ming Chen; Jo-Shu Chang

• Book ID: 101763625
• Publisher: American Institute of Chemical Engineers
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 166 KB
• Volume: 26
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 8756-7938
• DOI: 10.1002/btpr.381

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The autotrophic growth of an oil‐rich indigenous microalgal isolate, identified as Chlorella vulgaris CC, was promoted by using engineering strategies to obtain the microalgal oil for biodiesel synthesis. Illumination with a light/dark cycle of 14/10 (i.e., 14 h light‐on and 10 h light‐off) resulted in a high overall oil production rate (v~oil~) of 9.78 mg/L/day and a high electricity conversion efficiency (E~c~) of 23.7 mg cell/kw h. When using a NaHCO~3~ concentration of 1,500 mg/L as carbon source, the v~oil~ and E~c~ were maximal at 100 mg/L/day and 128 mg/kw h, respectively. A Monod type model was used to describe the microalgal growth kinetics with an estimated maximum specific growth rate (μ~max~) of 0.605 day^−1^ and a half saturation coefficient (K~s~) of 124.9 mg/L. An optimal nitrogen source (KNO~3~) concentration of 625 mg/L could further enhance the microalgal biomass and oil production, leading to a nearly 6.19 fold increase in v~oil~ value. © 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 2010