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Enhanced astaxanthin production from microalga, Haematococcus pluvialis by two-stage perfusion culture with stepwise light irradiation

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Abstract

For efficient astaxanthin production from the culture of green microalga, Haematococcus pluvialis, a two-stage mixotrophic culture system was established with stepwise increased light irradiance. By perfusion process, high density biomass (2.47 g/L) was achieved during the vegetative stage due to no detrimental effect of inhibitory metabolites, which was 3.09 and 1.67 times higher than batch and fed-batch processes, respectively. During the induction stage, biomass and astaxanthin were subsequently produced to the very high level 12.3 g/L and 602 mg/L, under stepwise increased light irradiance (150–450 μE/m2/s), respectively. These results indicate that the combinatorial approach of perfusion culture during the vegetative stage and stepwise light irradiation during the induction stage is a promising strategy for the simultaneous production of high concentration of biomass and astaxanthin in microalgae including H. pluvialis.

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Acknowledgments

This work has been supported by the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning and Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy of Korea as a parts of the Project of “Process demonstration for bioconversion of CO2 to high-valued biomaterials using microalgae” (20122010200010-11-2-100) in “Energy Efficiency & Resources Technology R&D” project, and also supported by grants (2011-0031997) from Korea CCS R&D Center and University-Institute cooperation program (2012) of the National Research funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning of Korea. SJS acknowledges the support by a Korea University Grant (2011).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, 136-713, South Korea

    Seung Phill Choi & Sang Jun Sim

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, 440-746, South Korea

    Joon Chul Park & Min-Eui Hong

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  1. Joon Chul Park
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  2. Seung Phill Choi
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  3. Min-Eui Hong
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  4. Sang Jun Sim
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Correspondence to Sang Jun Sim.

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J. C. Park and S. P. Choi contributed equally to this work.

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Park, J.C., Choi, S.P., Hong, ME. et al. Enhanced astaxanthin production from microalga, Haematococcus pluvialis by two-stage perfusion culture with stepwise light irradiation. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 37, 2039–2047 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-014-1180-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-014-1180-y

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