Abstract
The growth yield of the PUFA-producing marine microalgaIsochrysis galbana ALII-4 grown in a light limited chemostat, was measured under a wide variety of conditions of incident irradiance (I O ) and dilution rates (D). The experiments were conducted under laboratory conditions at 20 °C under continuous light. D ranged from 0.0024 to 0.0410 h−1 at three intensities of Io (820, 1620 and 3270 µmol photon m−2 s−1) close to those found in outdoor cultures. A maximum efficiency Ψ max = 0.616 g mol photon−1 was obtained at I O = 820 µmol photon m−2 s−1 and D = 0.030 h−1 and the maximum capacity of the biomass to metabolize the light harvested was found to be 13.1 µmol photon g−1 s−1. Above this value, a significant drop in the system efficiency was observed. A new approach based in the averaged irradiance is used to assess the photon flux absorbed by the biomass.
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Abbreviations
- C b :
-
Biomass concentration (g m−3 or mg l−1)
- D:
-
Dilution rate (h−1)
- F:
-
Photon flux (µmol photon s−1)
- F ab :
-
Photon flux absorbed by the biomass unit (µmol photon g−1 s−1)
- F vol :
-
Photon flux absorbed in the volume unit (µmol photon m−3 s−1)
- I a :
-
Absorbed light energy (Lee et al. notation (1987)
- i av :
-
Average irradiance inside a culture bulk (µmol photon m−2 s−1)
- I O :
-
Incident irradiance (µmol photon m−2 s−1)
- K a :
-
Extinction coefficient (g m−2)
- P b :
-
Biomass productivity (g m−3 h−1)
- Q b :
-
Biomass combustion enthalpy (kJ g−1)
- qo :
-
Energetic content of an equivalent of electrons (113 kJ (eq.e−)−1)
- V:
-
Volume (m−3)
- Ψ:
-
Bioenergetic growth yield (%)
- Ψ′:
-
Bioenergetic coefficient from Lee et al. (1987) recalculated with Eqn.[1] (%)
- γ b :
-
Biomass reduction grade (eq.e− eq.C−1)
- σ b :
-
Carbon content of biomass (mass fraction)
- Ψ E :
-
Quantum growth yield (g µmol photon−1)
- Ψ kJ :
-
Energetic growth yield (g kJ−1)
- µ:
-
Specific growth rate (h−1)
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Molina Grima, E., García Camacho, F., Sánchez Pérez, J.A. et al. Growth yield determination in a chemostat culture of the marine microalgaIsochrysis galbana . J Appl Phycol 8, 529–534 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02186332
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02186332