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Sustainable, High-Yielding Outdoor Mass Cultures of Chaetoceros muelleri var. subsalsum and Isochrysis galbana in Vertical Plate Reactors

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Abstract

Continuous cultures of Chaetoceros muelleri and Isochrysis galbana were grown outdoors in flat plate-glass reactors in which light-path length (LPL) varied from 5 to 30 cm. High daily productivity (13 to 16 g cell mass per square meter of irradiated reactor surface) for long periods of time was obtained in reactors in which the optical path as well as cell density were optimized. 'Twenty centimeters was the optimal LPL, yielding the highest areal productivity of cell mass (g m−2d−1), eicosapentaenoic acid, and docosahexaenoic acid, which was identical with that previously found for polysaccharide production of Porphyridium and not far from the optimal LPL affecting maximal productivity in Nannochloropsis species. Relating the energy impinging on a given reactor surface area to the appropriate number of cells showed that the most efficient light dose per cell, obtained with the 20-cm LPL reactor, was approximately 2.5 times lower than the light dose available per cell in the 5-cm LPL reactor, in which a significant decline in areal cell density accompanied the lowest areal output of cell mass. The most effective harvesting regimen was in the range of 10% to 15% of culture volume harvested daily and replaced with fresh growth medium, resulting in a sustainable culture density of 24 × 106 and 28 × 106 cells/ml of C. muelleri and I. galbana, respectively.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Microalgal Biotechnology Laboratory, The Albert Katz Department of Dryland Biotechnologies, The Jacob Blaustein Institute for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede-Boker Campus 84990, Israel

    C. W. Zhang & A. Richmond

  2. College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, No. 122 NingHai Road, Nanjing City 210097, China

    C. W. Zhang

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Correspondence to A. Richmond.

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Zhang, C., Richmond, A. Sustainable, High-Yielding Outdoor Mass Cultures of Chaetoceros muelleri var. subsalsum and Isochrysis galbana in Vertical Plate Reactors . Mar. Biotechnol. 5, 302–310 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10126-002-0075-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10126-002-0075-0

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