title: Outdoor pilot-scale production of Nannochloropsis gaditana: influence of culture parameters and lipid production rates in tubular photobioreactors.
abstract: This work studied outdoor pilot scale production of Nannochloropsis gaditana in tubular photobioreactors. The growth and biomass composition of the strain were studied under different culture strategies: continuous-mode (varying nutrient supply and dilution rate) and two-stage cultures aiming lipid enhancement. Besides, parameters such as irradiance, specific nitrate input and dilution rate were used to obtain models predicting growth, lipid and fatty acids production rates. The range of optimum dilution rate was 0.31-0.351/day with maximum biomass, lipid and fatty acids productivities of 590, 110 and 66.8 mg/l day, respectively. Nitrate limitation led to an increase in lipid and fatty acids contents (from 20.5% to 38.0% and from 16.9% to 23.5%, respectively). Two-stage culture strategy provided similar fatty acids productivities (56.4 mg/l day) but the neutral lipids content was doubled.
authors.affiliation: Chemical Engineering Area, Department of Engineering, University of Almería, E04120 Almería, Spain.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: San Pedro
authors.affiliation: Chemical Engineering Area, Department of Engineering, University of Almería, E04120 Almería, Spain. Electronic address: cynthiagonzalez@ual.es.
authors.forename: C V
authors.initials: CV
authors.lastname: González-López
authors.affiliation: Chemical Engineering Area, Department of Engineering, University of Almería, E04120 Almería, Spain.
authors.forename: F G
authors.initials: FG
authors.lastname: Acién
authors.affiliation: Chemical Engineering Area, Department of Engineering, University of Almería, E04120 Almería, Spain.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Molina-Grima
mesh_terms: D018533:Biomass; D001709:Biotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000096:biosynthesis; D008055:Lipids / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D058433:Photobioreactors; D010865:Pilot Projects; D058009:Stramenopiles / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D005227:Fatty Acids; D008055:Lipids
keywords: Growth model; Microalgae; Nitrate limitation; Outdoor culture; Tubular photobioreactors