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Towards a Sustainable Route for the Production of Squalene Using Cyanobacteria

Waste and Biomass Valorization volume 10, pages 1295–1302 (2019)Cite this article

Abstract

Treatment of slaughterhouse wastewater is a huge industrial problem. The use of an algae biorefinery platform could be a sustainable technological alternative that produces value-added compounds instead of dumping the wastewater. For this reason, this research aimed to evaluate squalene production from the microalgae Phormidium autumnale cultivated using agroindustrial wastewater. A derivatization method was performed to determine the squalene and fatty acids content, evaluated by gas chromatography with flame ionization and mass spectrometry detectors. A total of 0.18 g/kg of squalene were found in the biomass, with a high content of unsaturated fatty acids (52%). Sensitivity analysis estimated production of 727–72,750 kg/year in industries with different capacities. In this sense, P. autumnale in agroindustrial wastewater could offer a potential alternative method of squalene production.

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Acknowledgements

The present study was carried out with the financial support of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq)- Brazil and funding from FAPERGS - Foundation for Research Support of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil and CAPES improving coordination of Higher Education Personnel for supporting this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food Science and Technology, Federal University of Santa Maria, Santa Maria, RS, CEP 97105-900, Brazil

    Mariane Bittencourt Fagundes, Raquel Guidetti Vendruscolo, Mariana Manzoni Maroneze, Juliano Smanioto Barin, Cristiano Ragagnin de Menezes, Leila Queiroz Zepka, Eduardo Jacob-Lopes & Roger Wagner

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  1. Mariane Bittencourt Fagundes
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  2. Raquel Guidetti Vendruscolo
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  3. Mariana Manzoni Maroneze
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Correspondence to Roger Wagner.

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Mariane Bittencourt Fagundes declares that she has no conflict of interest and all the other authors: Raquel Guidetti Vendruscolo, Mariana Manzone Maroneze, Cristiano Ragagnin Menezes, Leila Queiroz Zepka, Juliano Smanioto Barin, Eduardo Jacob-Lopes and Roger Wagner also declares that they have no conflict of interest.

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Fagundes, M.B., Vendruscolo, R.G., Maroneze, M.M. et al. Towards a Sustainable Route for the Production of Squalene Using Cyanobacteria. Waste Biomass Valor 10, 1295–1302 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-017-0191-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-017-0191-8

Keywords

  • Bioactive compound
  • Gas chromatography
  • Microalgae
  • Phormidium autumnale
  • Sensitivity analysis