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Strategic mixed substrate cultivation of microalgae: productivity, respiration, yield, and lipid quality

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Abstract

Mixotrophic cultivation of three microalgae species, Chlorella sorokiniana, Scenedesmus obliquus and Scenedesmus abundans, was carried out with a mixed substrate containing glucose and acetate (1:1) under indoor and outdoor conditions. For indoor cultivation, the highest biomass productivities for C. sorokiniana, S. obliquus and C. abundans were 331 ± 11.5, 317 ± 3.5, and 130.7 ± 3.1 mg L−1 day−1, respectively. The key result showed that the highest lipid productivities (29.8–36.2 mg L−1 day−1) were obtained for C. sorokiniana for the cases in which acetate was added on day 1 in glucose-mediated cultures. Lipid accumulation was higher (27–36% of dry weight) for S. obliquus and S. abundans. The highest amount of lipid was accumulated for the strategies in which acetate was added on day 1 in glucose-mediated culture. C. sorokiniana showed the highest biomass yields of 0.39 g g−1 as compared to the other two species. For outdoor cultivation, the biomass and lipid productivity values for C. sorokiniana and S. obliquus were 172.8 ± 4.2 and 183.9 ± 6.8 mg L−1 day−1 and 30.5 ± 2.2 and 26.9 ± 3.1 mg L−1 day−1, respectively.

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Acknowledgments

Ms. Suvidha Gupta is thankful to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi for providing Senior Research Fellowship (SRF) for her Ph.D. work.

Funding

The corresponding author was financially supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), New Delhi, under the scheme of DST INSPIRE Faculty Award (IFA13–ENG63).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad, 201002, India

    Suvidha Gupta

  2. Environmental Biotechnology and Genomics Division (EBGD), CSIR–National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nehru Marg, Nagpur, 440020, India

    Suvidha Gupta & Sanjay B. Pawar

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  1. Suvidha Gupta
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  2. Sanjay B. Pawar
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Correspondence to Sanjay B. Pawar.

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Gupta, S., Pawar, S.B. Strategic mixed substrate cultivation of microalgae: productivity, respiration, yield, and lipid quality. J Appl Phycol 31, 1573–1588 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-018-1688-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-018-1688-7

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