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Chlorella vulgaris cultivation using ricotta cheese whey as substrate for biomass production

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Abstract

The batch production of Chlorella vulgaris and its potential to profit the remnant nutritional components from ricotta cheese whey (RCW) were evaluated. From a first screening test, undiluted ricotta cheese whey was selected to be used as a growth media in the subsequent assays. Three different RCW pre-treatment methods were tested and compared: centrifugation, heat treatment (HT) and tangential flow microfiltration (TFMF). Based on the results of the screening test, a macronutrient supplementation assay was performed to increase the biomass production. A central composite design was used to analyse the effect of supplementing the media with nitrogen (0; 3.3 and 6.6 g L−1) and phosphorous (0; 0.27 and 0.55 g L−1). Chlorella vulgaris was able to grow in all tested RCW concentrations. All RCW pre-treatment methods resulted in an enhancement of the growth kinetic parameters (GKP) of Chlorella vulgaris. Among them, TFMF technology presented the best performance. The macronutrient supplementation did not show an enhancement in GKP. The scaled-up production until 400 mL batch using micro-filtered RCW showed a μmax value of 0.41 ± 0.05 h−1 (9.9 ± 1.2 day−1), a lag period of 19.9 ± 0.7 h and a Cmax of 2.52 ± 0.09. A final biomass concentration of 2.28 g L−1 was obtained. In addition, chemical oxygen demand (COD), phosphorus and nitrogen removals of 26 ± 1%, 75 ± 1% and 55 ± 1% were respectively achieved. The use of TFMF and Chlorella vulgaris cultivation represents a sustainable proposal for contributing to the circular economy.

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Acknowledgements

The authors want to acknowledge the Microalgae Laboratory of Universidad Nacional Patagónica San Juan Bosco for supplying the C. vulgaris strain, Lácteos Javifer dairy for supplying the RCW, the Dairy Centre of the National Institute of Industrial Technology for the analytical equipment provided and the technical support of its professionals, the Chemical Engineering Department of the Faculty of Buenos Aires (FRBA) of the National Technological University (UTN) and Juan Francisco Vivas for improving the written English style.

Funding

This study was financially supported by the National Interuniversity Council (CIN) through the Scholarship granted by the Resolution CE N° 1334/18 within frame of the Strategic Program for Human Resources Training in Research and Development (PERHID) and by the Secretary of University Policies (SPU). Universidad Tecnológica Nacional (Project ID: IPUTIBA0004740TC and PDTSO-2019 Res CS 782/19).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Tecnologías Químicas, Departamento de Ingeniería Química, Facultad Regional Buenos Aires, Universidad Tecnológica Nacional, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Nahuel E. Casá, Julieta Lois-Milevicich, Paola Alvarez, Ricardo Mateucci & Marina de Escalada Pla

  2. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Y Naturales, Instituto de Tecnología de Alimentos Y Procesos Químicos, Universidad de Buenos Aires, (ITAPROQ-UBA/CONICET, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Marina de Escalada Pla

  3. Departamento de Industrias, FCEN, UBA, Ciudad Universitaria, 1428) Ciudad , Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Marina de Escalada Pla

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  1. Nahuel E. Casá
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  2. Julieta Lois-Milevicich
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  3. Paola Alvarez
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  5. Marina de Escalada Pla
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Contributions

Nahuel Casá: Conceptualization, project administration, funding acquisition, formal analysis, data curation and writing—original draft. Julieta Lois-Milevicich: Formal analysis and investigation. Paola Alvarez: Methodology, investigation and resources. Ricardo Mateucci: Methodology, investigation and resources. Marina de Escalada Pla: Conceptualization, methodology, supervision and writing—review and editing. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Marina de Escalada Pla.

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Casá, N.E., Lois-Milevicich, J., Alvarez, P. et al. Chlorella vulgaris cultivation using ricotta cheese whey as substrate for biomass production. J Appl Phycol 34, 745–756 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-022-02685-3

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