Abstract
There is potential for algal-derived biofuel to help alleviate part of the world's dependency on petroleum based fuels. However, research must still be done on strain selection, induction of triacylglycerol (TAG) accumulation, and fundamental algal metabolic studies, along with large-scale culturing techniques, harvesting, and biofuel/biomass processing. Here, we have advanced the knowledge on Scenedesmus sp. strain WC-1 by monitoring growth, pH, and TAG accumulation on a 14:10 light-dark cycle with atmospheric air or 5% CO 2 in air (v/v) aeration. Under ambient aeration, there was a loss of pH-induced TAG accumulation, presumably due to TAG consumption during the lower culture pH observed during dark hours (pH 9. 4). Under 5% CO 2 aeration, the growth rate nearly doubled from 0. 78 to 1. 53 d -1, but the pH was circumneutral (pH 6. 9) and TAG accumulation was minimal. Experiments were also performed with 5% CO 2 during the exponential growth phase, which was then switched to aeration with atmospheric air when nitrate was close to depletion. These tests were run with and without the addition of 50 mM sodium bicarbonate. Cultures without added bicarbonate showed decreased growth rates with the aeration change, but there was no immediate TAG accumulation. The cultures with bicarbonate added immediately ceased cellular replication and rapid TAG accumulation was observed, as monitored by Nile Red fluorescence which has previously been correlated by gas chromatography to cellular TAG levels. Sodium bicarbonate addition (25 mM final concentration) was also tested with the marine diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum strain Pt-1 and this organism also accumulated TAG.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1311-1320 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Journal of Applied Phycology |
Volume | 24 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 2012 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Financial disclosure Funding was provided by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR grant FA9550-09-1-0243), US Department of Energy (Office of Biomass Production grant DE-FG36-08GO18161), and partial support for RDG was provided by NSF IGERT Program in Geobiological Systems (DGE 0654336) at MSU.
Keywords
- Algae
- Biodiesel
- Fatty acid methyl ester (FAME)
- Nile Red fluorescence
- Triacylglycerol (TAG)