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Heterotrophic Culture of Chlorella protothecoides in Various Nitrogen Sources for Lipid Production

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Abstract

The influences of urea, yeast extract, and nitrate as the nitrogen source on heterotrophic growth of four strains of Chlorella protothecoides were investigated in 9-day feed-batch cultures. Biomass dry weight concentration (DWC) and lipid yield (LY) of the four strains in all media were compared. The highest LY in 9 days was 654 mg/L/day by UTEX 255 in 2.4 g/L KNO3 medium with a biomass DWC of 11.7 g/L and lipid content of 50.5%. Using green autotrophic seeds instead of yellow heterotrophic seeds improved the biomass DWC (13.1 vs. 11.7 g/L), LY (850 vs. 654 mg/L/day), and lipid to glucose consumption ratio (0.607 vs. 0.162). Moreover, 17.0 g/L DWC and 489 mg/L/day LY were obtained from the sequentially mixed-nitrogen medium, and the lipid to glucose consumption ratio was improved to 0.197 from 0.162 in 2.4 g/L nitrate medium and from 0.108 in 4.2 g/L yeast extract medium in the first batch.

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Acknowledgments

This work is financially supported by the National Science Foundation project (CMMI-0836610) and by the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station (contribution no. 09-076-J).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 66506, USA

    Y. Shen & W. Yuan

  2. Department of Industrial Engineering, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, 66506, USA

    Z. Pei

  3. College of Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100083, People’s Republic of China

    E. Mao

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  1. Y. Shen
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  2. W. Yuan
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  4. E. Mao
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Correspondence to W. Yuan.

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Shen, Y., Yuan, W., Pei, Z. et al. Heterotrophic Culture of Chlorella protothecoides in Various Nitrogen Sources for Lipid Production. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 160, 1674–1684 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-009-8659-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-009-8659-z

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